Pounding Head And Heavy Heart
Celestia dropped her student's letter to the side as she sat on her bed, having just lowered the sun. She was… she didn’t know. Nervous wasn’t quite the word, but she was a bit worried. Twilight was going to be her successor. She had no doubt about that. But even as sure as she was, she didn’t want random events potentially interfering with that.
She sighed to herself, debating what she should do. Maybe go down to Ponyville herself and see the filly? Take her back to Canterlot and… no. That wasn’t a good idea. She wasn’t scheduled to be in Ponyville until the day of the Summer Sun Celebration, and she didn’t want to worry her subjects by just dragging some random foal off with her. Besides, it was only one pony her pupil described, and there were thousands of ponies in Ponyville, and hundreds of cities in Equestria. Who was to say that this was the pony giving her that worried feeling she had? That the one who gave it to her was even in Ponyville at all?
“My heart is to say, of course,” the princess sighed to herself, laying in her bed. Whoever it was probably didn’t even intentionally want to cause trouble. It certainly didn’t feel that way to Celestia. But intentional or not, she didn’t want anything coming in between her and her plan for her student.
“Oh, what do I do about this?” she asked herself silently. “Just let things play out how they be? Leave things up to chance?”
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, trying to relax herself. Things would be fine. Things would work out. Things always worked out. Besides, it was early. It was best to not get into the middle of things and inadvertently cause trouble she didn’t intend to. She would be there during the Summer Sun Celebration, during her sister’s return, and get a chance to see her for herself. There wasn’t any reason to get worked up…
Although it might not hurt to just take a quick look at her before then if she could...
“Asher?” Lofty whispered. “Can you sit up for me, sweetie?”
I shut my already closed eyes tighter at her voice, shaking my head slightly, which only made it pound worse. I felt absolutely terrible, so much worse right then than I felt when I went to sleep.
“Please?” she asked me, whispering a bit louder. “Just for a little bit so I can take a look at you?”
“No…” I whispered back hoarsley, tearing up a little bit. I hated being sick. I could never stand it, not before, and not now. I got sick a lot when I was a kid, and it always made me more… emotional, which wasn’t something I liked being. If I had to pick between being sick and injuring myself, I would pick the latter every time.
“I just want to go back to sleep…” I whispered, turning my head away from her, feeling like I was sweating under my fur.
“I know, but I just want to make sure your fever isn’t too high,” she responded as she gently lifted me up. I kept my eyes closed, but even still I could tell there was sunlight making its way through the windows, and it was hurting my head to being facing towards.
“What time is it?” I asked as I carefully opened my eyes to see Lofty holding me, Holiday standing behind her as she did so.
“It’s almost noon, dear,” she answered as she stuck a thermometer in my mouth. “But it’s okay. We’ll let you get back to sleep soon, okay? Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle are outside right now so they don’t get sick, too.”
“They might already… achoo! Ow…”
I put my hooves on my head with that, unable to stop myself from crying quietly because of how badly the sneeze made my head pound. I didn’t know what I had, but it felt horrible, and I desperately wished I would get over it quickly.
“Hey, it’s okay,” Holiday told me as she made her way over and stroked my mane, causing me to wince.
“Please don’t touch my head…” I responded, still whispering.
“Oh, I’m sorry. It’ll be okay. After Miss Lofty gets your temperature, we’ll let you go back to sleep, okay?”
“I’ve got it. It’s… one hundred and two point eight… that’s… kind of high…”
“Do you think we should take her to the doctor?” Holiday asked.
“I really just want to go to sleep,” I whispered tiredly, sadly, sniffling as I did so.
“I know you do, Sweetie,” Lofty told me as she moved up to pet my mane, “but we want to make sure you’re okay. We’ll let you go to sleep once we get back, alright?”
“I don’t know why,” I complained as I lay back down gently. “It’s not like that doctor will believe me. She didn’t believe me before, she’ll probably just think I’m lying about being sick now…” I coughed weakly, then continued, “I really don’t like being sick…”
“I know you don’t like it,” Lofty told me, “but that’s why we need to go see the doctor, so they can make you all better. The sooner we leave, the sooner we can get back.”
“I’d really rather not,” I whispered, trying to close my eyes again before I was picked up.
“Come on, Asher,” Holiday said. “We need to get going, missy… er, I mean, mister.”
Lofty and Holiday watched as the filly gave a small smile as she weakly grabbed onto the latter’s neck. The mare gave a smirk to her wife as they both saw her reaction, before quickly setting back off for Ponyville General for the second time that week. As they walked, the two whispered to each other, Asher falling back asleep as they did so.
“She really actually likes being called a colt?” Lofty asked.
“I told you,” Holiday responded. “I know it’s weird, but like I said, it’s just about the only time I’ve seen her smile.”
“It’s very weird, but… I mean… I guess… I don’t have any problem with it, but you know she needs to see a psychiatrist, or a therapist. But I mean… I guess she really won’t be with us for too long anyway…” With that thought, Lofty scowled and looked at the ground.
“What are you thinking about?” Holiday asked her carefully.
“I’m really not too fond of her going back into Cheerilee’s hooves. I mean, we both know she doesn’t really take her seriously. Heck, Asher knows she doesn’t take her seriously. It’s apparent she doesn’t like her, or the nurses she saw from what it sounds like.”
“I know but…”
“I’m almost compelled to have her stay with us, but you know we can’t do that, and she certainly can’t stay with Scootaloo, what with how often your brother is away. Anyway, it’s a conversation for later. When we can, we do have to talk to that teacher. I want to have a serious conversation with her.”
It wasn’t long before the two of them made their way into the hospital, Holiday directing them over to nurse Tenderheart, intentionally avoiding Redheart.
“Oh my, the poor dear is sick isn’t she?” the nurse said as the two set the filly on the examination table, causing her to wake up and start to cough.
“She is,” Lofty explained as she stroked her mane while Asher laid on her stomach, legs tucked underneath her. “We think she was starting to get sick yesterday, although she said she was fine, and she ended up waking up really sick today.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. What kinds of symptoms does she have?” the nurse asked, getting out her stethoscope and starting to examine her.
“Well, she was sneezing a lot, and I think she might have had a cough if I remember right? Her temperature is also really high, one-oh-two point something.”
“Her lungs don’t sound great…” the nurse commented before bending down to quietly ask, “What feels the worst, dear?”
“My head is pounding…” Asher whispered with a sniff, barely audible as she placed her hooves on her head and ears.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Tenderheart told her and touched her mane lightly. "We'll get our doctor in here to magically examine you and see what’s going on, what's making you sick.”
“I don’t like magic…” the filly said quietly. “I don’t want magic…”
“Aww, I know it’s scary sweetie, but we need to know what’s wrong so we can make you all better,” Tenderheart told her before looking back up at Holiday and Lofty. “Let me go in and get the doctor. He should be here in just a minute.”
As she promised, it was only a minute before the doctor came in, a tan-colored horse with glasses, a brown mane, and a lab coat. Asher had already fallen back to sleep by the time he got in, Holiday gently petting her back.
“Ah, I was told the little filly doesn’t like magic,” he said with a small smile, “but it looks like she’s already back to sleep, so it shouldn’t be an issue.” With that, he stared at Asher intensely and concentrated, enveloping the filly in his blue magic as he looked around her. It was only a few seconds that he looked around before he raised his eyebrows, seeming confused.
“What is it?” Holiday asked as she grabbed her wife’s hoof.
“It’s… well, hmmm…” the unicorn trailed off, staring at her again as he looked inside of her. “Has she gotten all of her vaccinations?
“Well, um, we’re not really sure,” Lofty told him. “Right now she’s just being fostered with us until we find out where her guardians are… but why?”
“Well, it might be hard to believe, but it’s looking like... actually, we're going to test her blood just to make sure I'm not seeing anything incorrectly.” Then he sighed, groaning, “We’re gonna have to make sure the whole town is up to date on their vaccinations if it comes back for diphtheria…”
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Considering how important Sun-butt is to the country (and world), and that Twilie is near her all the time, I would imagine they both have the highest grade medical attention the world can provide.
10709781
Agreed.
10709781
Yeah, prolly... but they still better make sure they wash their hooves. They don't wanna get other ponies who might not be so up-to-date infected.
Didn't Bruce have diphtheria in "Oh to be old again?" It's a nice call back if it is.
Uh... didn't mean to be rude, but...
Geeze that's a big leap. What did he see to inspire that prognosis?
Looks like Team Ash is gaining strength.
Don't worry Celestia, anomalies have proven to have no effect on plans! Everything is just fine! 😂
10709818
You mean walk up to the sink with their dirty, germ-covered hooves, wash and dry their hooves, then place their hooves back onto the dirty ground that they just tracked the germs onto and walk away?
It's a nice thought, but walking on all fours is inherently unsanitary. The best ponies could reasonably hope for without some kind of magic solution, is to just keep the visible chunks of dirt and dust off their hooves.
now imagine the lab would say "is this a prank doc?" the patiant has no ore unkown sets of antibody's
10709831
Yeah, well, the point still stands.
10709820
Yes, he did
10709824
Thank you
10709828
He's a doctor, so my headcanon is that they can kind of 'see' what kinds of germs ponies have. Only kind of though, which is why they still have blood testing.
10709883
so that's why that was so familiar
Aaaand here we go, time to learn Asher has zero vaccinations and cause mass hysteria!
Okay, this gets more and more interresting. Would be intresting if Celestia isn't up to date to on her vaccaniations ,not thinking of them as neccesary, due to her increased alicorn metabolism
In the authors note you say “say” instead of stay.
As far as i can tell emotional is your default setting. All is right with the world.
10710665
That be how it be sometimes when you're a nine-year-old filly
i hope asher explains the idea of being trans to them. like "in my world theres these people that change their gender bc they really cant help it" it'd just help the story so much and maybe itll help them correctly gender him
11114656
Expect he is trans.