Good Girl
Good Girl
Dew drops fell from the leaves of the large oak tree outside of Ponyville Hospital’s Mental Wing. The rain from the night before had left the air cool and clean, and the many children and ponies outside of the makeshift asylum were looking forward to a wonderful, funfilled day.
Not so for those inside.
As the sun peaked through her tiny window, Screw Loose woke with a yawn. She stood up, smiling and stretched as far as she could.
Which wasn’t far considering her straitjacket...
Honestly, she had no idea why they made her wear one. If they were worried about her hurting somepony, they should have given her a muzzle.
The ponies that ran the place were obviously crazy.
Of course, everypony seemed to be crazy.
Her first masters, for instance. They named her Screw Loose of all things. Screw Loose! That’s a pony name! She was obviously a German shepherd. Who names a dog after a pony? It’s not like ponies are named after dogs, are they? You don’t see Rover baking cupcakes at Sugarcube Corner, you don’t see Lassie selling flowers, you don’t see Spike delivering mail...
Well...the dragon was an exception...
Ooh! Let’s see who’s outside today!
Screw Loose scurried over to the window, wagging her tail happily as she stood on her hind legs, barking at passers by.
Bark bark! Hey, Skip! Bark bark! Hey, Corky!
The two passing dalmatians ignored her.
Screw Loose let a whimper escape her throat as her ears flattened to her head.
They always ignored her...
Screw, what are you doing to yourself? You’re barking at other dogs. Come on, we both know the truth here.
Screw ignored the voice in her head. It was a liar. Telling her things like she wasn’t a dog, how stupid.
Her door opened and in stepped one of her new masters. She didn’t like this one that much, he smelled weird.
“Good morning, Miss Loose,” her master said, “how are you today?”
He also thought she was a pony,
How weird.
Screw answered his question with a bark.
You’re supposed to talk to Doctor Syringe. You’re supposed to say, “I’m doing fine.”
“Quite,” the master answered. “Now, I know you don’t like this part of your day, but it’s time for you to take your pills.”
Screw let loose a growl.
They’ll help us get better, Screw. They’ll fix us.
They taste funny.
“Come now, Miss Loose, no need to get feisty.”
She wasn’t being feisty. He knew just as well as she did that she wouldn’t bite. “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you,” rule number one of the dog’s handbook.
Or it would be, if dogs could read.
So Screw Loose quietly took the pills, only mumbling slightly as her master fed her them.
His name is Doctor Syringe—
And he’s one of my masters.
They're not your masters! They’re medical staff! You’re crazy, Screw! We’re both crazy! You brought me here, you stupid dog!
So you admit I’m a dog?
“Good girl,” the doctor said, before catching himself, “er, I mean, well done, Miss Loose. I’ll go get some breakfast for you.”
Yes! More pony food. That’s some good stuff. Not like the dry kibble she was used to.
You’ve never had a piece of kibble in your life.
Screw barked happily. Oh, this was going to be a wondrous day.
✦✦✦✦✦
He shouldn’t even be here.
He should just go home and get on with his life.
He didn’t need to come back here.
He sighed.
But he had to hope...
The silver-grey pegasus with the black, wind swept mane took a few more tentative steps towards the hospital. The cloud cutie mark with a silver outline looked painfully grim today.
He knew what was coming.
Tears, pain, torment, self loathing.
It would all be there, and he would take it.
He would take it like he had yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that, and the month before that...
He shook his head, and stepped inside.
One of the nurses, a blue mare with a mint mane, Nurse Sweetheart smiled at him. “Good morning, Mr. Lining. Here to see Miss Loose?”
The pegasus, Silver Lining, nodded and desperately tried to smile at the nurse who had been so kind and so encouraging over the last few months.
“You are the best part of her day,” she said smiling, trying to lift his spirits.
Silver Lining nodded before heading into the mental ward.
The long hallway to her room was white, trimmed with green to keep the patients calm. But it may as well have gone straight through a graveyard for the solemn atmosphere that seemed to radiate off of every wall. This was where the insane spent their lives, slowly but surely dying at the hands of time. The ever-present smell of sterilized linoleum felt overpowering, before a quick snort from the pegasus cleared his nose for a brief second, letting him adjust.
A scream echoed from down the hall, and the security guard, two nurses and a doctor armed with a syringe disappeared into one of the rooms.
Silver ignored them before coming up to a door he had become more than familiar with. Room Three Forty-Five.
He hesitated at the door.
He wasn't ready for this.
He wasn't ready to see her act like a dog. He wasn't ready to see her white unkempt mane, which she normally had so well-groomed. He couldn't look at that straight jacket, that tugged and bound her tighter than any prison wall ever would. He could never prepare for her to treat him like some sort of stranger. His mind screamed when the engagement hoofband would mock him. He could feel his heart break when she would look up with those expectant eyes, hoping that maybe she’d go on a walk today. His hoof shook at the thought of going inside.
He wasn't ready for the mental image of the disappointment on her face if he didn’t.
Taking a deep breath, he went inside.
✦✦✦✦✦
Screw Loose wagged her tail as her favorite master came in through the door.
She couldn’t remember why he was her favorite, but she knew that he was.
She barked happily at him.
He frowned.
Oh no. Did I do something wrong? Did I make him mad? Did I make him sad?
Her ears flattened against her head and she gave a low whimper.
“No, don’t do that, Screw,” her master said, “you’re ok. Come here.”
She slowly approached him, her ears still flat, and her head hung low, looking up at him with her gaze.
“You’re not in trouble, Screw, just come.”
She came closer, her head still hung low, but her ears had come up.
“Come here, Screw,” Silver said again.
She got closer, sitting right in front of him, her tail wagging, happy to see him, but her head low, as though she were awaiting punishment.
Silver simply stood there.
✦✦✦✦✦
There she sat, looking like a dog that had left a mess on the carpet and was about to be scolded.
There she was, her mane and tail a mess, her straitjacket tight around her legs, giving her barely enough room to walk and move, her golden engagement band glinting in the sunlight that streamed through her small window.
The band he had given her all those nights ago at the carnival.
She had looked so pretty that night, with her mane straightened and her coat pristine, wearing that white dress bordered with lace.
Instead, she was here. Here, where she was surrounded by padded walls. Instead of her dress, she only had a straitjacket, designed to keep her from running like she had when she almost escaped a few months ago.
She whimpered, like a dog, looking up at him with sad eyes as her tailed stilled.
Where was the pony he had fallen in love with?
He lifted a hoof and ran it over her mane, smoothing it out, “It’s okay, Screw, you’re okay...”
But she wasn’t okay. She was crazy.
✦✦✦✦✦
The pet she had received raised the German shepherd’s spirits immensely. It meant that things were okay. Ponies could lie with their words, but not their touch, not even masters.
He’s not our master, you stupid dog, don’t you recognize him?
He's master?
No! No you moronic thing! He’s Silver Lining. He’s our fiance.
But that’s silly. Ponies don’t get married to dogs.
We’re not a dog!
“How have you been, Screw?” the master asked.
She answered with a bark.
No! Stop it! Talk to him! Silver! Silver, can you hear me!?
“That’s nice,” he said through a sad smile.
Silver! Silver, it’s me! Can you hear me!?
✦✦✦✦✦
The doctors weren’t sure what it was that had done this to her. Their best guess was that it was something akin to Multiple Personality Disorder, where the dominant personality was a dog.
Screw Loose, meanwhile, the Screw Loose he knew and loved, was forced into the background, watching.
They had told him a few things then.
The first thing they told him was that there were a few treatments they could provide. There were pills, shots, IVs, Advanced Medical Magic all the way up to electroshock therapy. They were all experimental.
The IV’s were pointless.
The magic failed.
Electroshock seemed too cruel.
Screw had always hated shots, so they had picked the pills, and they worked.
Sometimes.
Sometimes it would strengthen the pony Screw, and she would ping-pong between the two of them. Other times, it would strengthen the dog and Screw Loose would never show.
The other thing they told him was that there was no cure.
There was no cure and there would not be one in his lifetime.
There were simply not enough cases occurring to get a proper treatment. Her only hope was if she recovered on her own.
But ponies can’t really recover from mental illnesses.
“Your parents were worried about you,” Silver said. “They talk about you all the time.”
Screw panted as she looked up at him with those eyes. Those eyes that were glazed over with madness.
He was talking to her, he knew. In one of her few moments of lucidity she had told him she could hear him. Maybe that’s why he kept coming back. Because he knew it would kill her if she thought he had given up on her.
He smirked.
This was going to kill him.
“You’re a good marefriend, Screw.”
The dog licked him.
He froze, and his grin fell away.
What was he doing?
He was talking to a dog. He was talking to a stupid dog trapped in the body of the mare he loved.
But she was still a dog.
No, no that’s not right, Silver. You know better than that. You’ve seen her when she’s in her right mind. You’ve seen her fight herself for dominance. You’ve seen her win a number of times.
Only for the dog to come back.
Only for her to lose.
Only for her to slip back into insanity.
But she was still there...
✦✦✦✦✦
Silver! Silver, please! Please tell me you can hear me! Please don’t leave yet! Please!
Shut up, Voice in My Head, I’m trying to listen to master.
Silver! Silver!
Hey, I missed what he said!
Silver! Help me!
Hey, I think he said I was a good dog. I’m going to lick him for that.
Don’t you dare.
Too late.
Why you little...
Aw...now he’s sad...I better lick him again.
Don’t touch him! Don’t you dare touch him “You stupid Dog!”
✦✦✦✦✦
“You stupid Dog!” Screw Loose yelled at the top of her lungs, the sudden outburst startling the pegasus. “Leave us alone! Just leave me alone!” she said before she broke down into tears.
She sat, crying, sobbing as her eyes became lucid. Her tears fell in a constant stream as a frustrated, and broken mare took the place of the German Shepherd that had inhabited the body a second ago.
Silver nuzzled her, trying to comfort her in this impossible situation.
“I’m so sorry, Silver. I’m sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry about.”
“Don’t leave me.”
“I won’t,” he said, hugging her tightly.
She grabbed him under the hug, straining against the straps that kept her from lifting her legs over her head. She cried into his chest, holding on to him in desperation. “Don’t leave me. Please, don’t leave me.”
Tears ran down her face, staining Silver’s chest and her straitjacket.
“I won’t leave you, Screw. I won’t.”
Sobs racked her body as she shook from fright. Her forelegs were gripped tight around him, as though he were a ghost that would fly away at any moment.
She held him like that for what seemed like hours, crying and sobbing and holding onto him with everything she had.
Silver felt a blush of shame creep up on his cheeks.
He had almost given up on her once. He had almost abandoned her, leaving her at the mercy of the dog that tormented her and the doctors that only made her situation more dire.
He had almost forgotten Screw Loose.
The real Screw Loose.
“I’m sorry, Screw,” Silver whispered. “I’m sorry.”
She knew what he was going to say. The night he had proposed he had promised her that he would protect from anything.
But he couldn’t protect her from this.
“I’m sorry, Silver,” she answered back.
She had promised she would always be there for him.
Instead she was trapped in this small, padded room.
They sat there, just holding each other, because they knew it was all they could do. It was all they could do until Silver’s job or the dog tore them away from each other.
“I love you, Screw,” he told her.
“Don’t leave me,” she whimpered.
“I won’t,” Silver answered, a tear threatening to fall from his eye. “I can’t.”
✦✦✦✦✦
Lunch time had come and gone.
So had Screw.
The Dog was sitting in front of him now, her head cocked to one side as she tried to understand the words Silver was saying.
As she sat there, the pegasus wondered at her.
How was it that the pony was ugly when the dog was running her body, but so beautiful when she was in her right mind?
The dog made Screw’s blue coat look dingy, it made her calm eyes look wild, and it made her whole being less...
But when it was Screw Loose...
Her mane looked dirty, but not dingy, something a simple bath could fix. It made her eyes look frightened, not frenzied. It made her seem broken...but she was still strong enough to rise up and stand.
He loved her deeply, but he did not love the dog...
Maybe it was just his mind playing tricks on him. Maybe it was just his heart pulling strings, maybe he shouldn’t come back tomorrow.
Shut up, he mentally spat at himself for even thinking that.
He would be back.
He would always come back.
He had to come back for Screw Loose.
Her eyes calmed for a moment, and she approached him, gripping him in another hug. “Tell me about Cloudsdale,” she asked.
“It’s a nice place,” Silver began, returning the hug.
“What does it look like?”
She would do this every now and then; ask about the world outside her small four walls, it was her only way of knowing...
“You would like it there,” Silver answered. “Houses and shops made from clouds, carefully hoof-carved so that they will stand for a lifetime. Pillars that reach up to empty space, reminding us pegasi that there is no ceiling, no limit on our lives. The streets are soft and warm, and everything seems to glow white. Everywhere you look there’s nothing but blue sky. The sun always shines brightly, and the ground beneath us looks like a massive carpet, stretching to the very ends of the horizon...”
“It sounds beautiful,” Screw Loose said, holding him tight. “I wish I could see it.”
Silver nodded. “Maybe one day.”
Maybe one day. That sentence was wishful thinking at best.
She wasn’t leaving here. She’d never leave here. Not until she was cured and that just wasn’t going to happen.
They were just lying to themselves, and they both knew it.
Maybe one day they’d be able to look at the truth. The crushing truth that they weren’t getting out of this.
Maybe one day...
“Silver,” Screw Loose began, “Silver, can you still see the good in any situation?”
Silver gave her a small smile. It was his special talent, to see the bright side of things. To find his namesake in any cloud.
“Yes, yes, Screw, I can.” His smile faded.
“What’s the good thing about this?”
Silver was quiet for a moment.
He had asked himself this question so many times. What was the good side? What was the silver lining? What possibly good outcome could ever come from this?
Would this be a life lesson for one or both of them?
A lesson on what? That life sucks?
Were their lives being enriched?
If by enriched you mean I’m working myself to the bone trying to support her and she is slowly wasting away in a jail cell.
Would this bring them closer together?
It already had, but even that was killing them.
He just couldn't tell her that. He didn’t want to tell her that this situation had no silver lining, that this was literally rock bottom and there was nothing anyone could do to save them.
His mouth moved, but nothing came out. His throat didn’t make a sound as he struggled against logic and facts.
He wanted to tell her she’d be okay.
He wanted to tell her they’d both get out of here.
Instead, all he said was “I don’t know, Screw...I don’t know.”
She nodded, tears in her eyes. “I was afraid of that.”
They didn’t say anything else, but merely sat in silence, holding each other for as long as they could.
✦✦✦✦✦
“I have to go now, Screw,” Silver said, standing in front of the door.
She barked.
He couldn’t take it anymore. He couldn’t even look at her anymore. All he could do was stare at the door and beg for some sort of miracle.
There won’t be one.
He took a deep breath before letting it out in a ragged sigh.
Be strong, Silver. Be strong. Don’t let her see you cry.
He couldn’t afford to cry. He had to be the stable one. He had to be the rock she could stand on while everything else was a roaring sea of confusion and stress. He had to be unfazeable. He had to be—
“Silver?”
He turned, hoping to see the pony lucid one last time.
But she was already gone, the stupid eyes of the dog stared back at him as she panted.
He sighed again, before turning to the door.
A tear broke through, falling to the ground as it broke against the padded floor.
He had to speak to the dog now. The thing that was separating them. The stupid, clueless creature that was keeping him from his love. “Stay,” he said, as authoritative as he could. “Sit.”
The dog sat.
He chanced one more look back as he stepped through the door.
Only the dog stared back at him.
“Good girl...”
Stats
Page generated in 0.024 seconds
Total duration
995 users online
152,772 hits today, 2,004,447 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Just want to say this fan fiction is wonderful. Why can't I hold all these feels?
The whole time I was like "HANG IN THERE SILVER LINING!"
I like this. Faved.
I spotted a typo: "screamed echoed" should be scream echoed.
Oh god. The feels. The feels!
This is great. Good job, upvoted and favorited.
1534607
Thank you, and fixed.
1534607 AAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUGHHHH an error! My fault. *jumps off cliff*
I want a miracle
oh jeez my aorta and all of the feels spilling out upon the floor in a big red puddle dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Lyra_cry.png
I guess there isn't a Silver Lining in every cloud...
HOH MY GAWD! THE FEELS! THEY BE SO POWERFUL!
RAH!
1585582
Tell your friends.
1585590
... i Have an idea...
1585603
Interest is piqued...pray tell, what idea do you have?
1585618
... I want to do a Dramatic reading of this
1589644
Cool.
1590469
... can i?
1591356
Like I'm going to turn this down?
Please, I won't stop you.
1591362
Sweet
This story.
B'AWWWWW
What's that rattling sound? Oh, it's the death of hope
encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQLmqT_7wNVhH6ke68ExmPw4325fU4awGgAr0dnIg0TiqiicEDNPA
1576895 May i eat it?
in season 3 there is a part where screw loose is inside a house. i believe red heart was there too but outside the house. to me it seems that she got better and is able to function in society again. it would be nice to see a follow up on this story.
outside of that. great story.
That's so sad
Before I read this, is it anything like Jet Li's 'Unleashed?' :P
2385909
No. At least I don't think so, never saw the movie.
2385914
Ah, well I asked because it's about a guy raised to think he's a dog. Who also knows kung fu? It's been awhile.
2385935
No, it's not. This is incredibly more depressing.
Could he make an appeal to the princesses or something?! Perhaps an epic quest of sorts!? Please write a follow up!
(after your done with a novice swordsman of course)
1548074 We NEED a miracle
I think it is clear to you how much we need a sequel to this.
You broke our feels, now you must fix them.
Story was pretty awesome, not enough to shed a tear but certainly enough to make it ache.
So I repeat...FIX US, make a sequel
It was actually pretty amusing up until the first page break, whence came the cold realization of Screw Loose's unfortunate situation. More than a little heartwrenching.The short, sparse paragraphs helped the mood of the story by giving it a clipped, detached feel. Those few kind words from Nurse Sweetheart (love that name, btw) were definitely the brightest part of all 3.4K.
Ohmygod that is SO sad.
2196536 Screw Loose was released and Nurse Red Heart was checking on her to make sure she was okay. Then Spike rushed by with the pets and Winona (Applejack's dog) barked.
... I freaking love that song, and this... is done well... Wow...