Time for your check-up
“Noooo!!!” The little red-coated unicorn claimed as he tried to hold the bedsheets.
“Come on honey. We must go to the doctor now. We’re going to be late!” Her mother said while she tried to take her son softly and without hurting him. It was already that time of the year. Sweetie Dash and Red Dark, the two proud parents, had to bring their little foals to the doctor for a routine check-up, and Magic, the youngest one, was, as always, scared because of the awful things that could happen in the consult.
“Magic, we’re not playing!” Sweetie said when she finally stopped pulling him and with a simple levitation spell, she moved the colt straight to her chest to carry him. Magic then immediately started to cry in the hooves of his mother.
“Ugh! What a crybaby!” Magic’s big sister, Sky, exclaimed. She was a colorful pegasi, two years bigger than the colt, and of course, she was also forced to go to the doctor, but with thousands of times less fear than her brother. Her rude words didn’t make more than increasing the crying of her little brother. This was the same situation every time that the next check-up approached in the calendar, and there wasn’t anything to do except trying to calm the sensitive foal.
“Come on Magic. When the check-up finishes, you’ll get a lollipop!” Sweetie tried to say to calm him down. The sweet words from his mother were usually enough to make him stop crying, and this time it wasn’t, thanks to Celestia, an exception. “We better hurry up.” Added Magic’s mother when the whole family was ready to leave.
As usual, they were visiting the Princesses’ Hospital, dedicated to caring for the families of the workers of the Canterlot’s castle like Sweetie Dash, with, of course, amazing medical attention for all kinds of diseases. It didn’t matter if it was one of the better hospitals, if not the best one in the entire kingdom, it was still a hospital and it was full of stressing things for a young foal like Magic. Starting from the cold environment, the flat white floor, passing through the coughs of several ponies in the waiting room, and without mentioning the constant calls thought the speakers.
Going to the doctor wasn’t a trouble at all for Sky, who simply knew that it was something boring that she had to do. She usually distracted herself with some magazines from the waiting room without any drama. Things were completely different for the young colt sit down next to her. He was too shy and afraid of strange stuff. To make things a bit more complicated if possible, he was still wearing diapers. That’s right. Usually, colts and fillies of his age already dominated the art of going to the potty when they needed, but Magic was still in the final part of that hard process with certain accidents on board. His parents preferred then, for those kinds of stressful scenarios, to don’t take any risk.
“Sky!” A voice announced from the corridor. Sky and her father walked then quickly to the consulting room in the middle of the corridor. The blue-coated pegasus couldn’t look more relaxed, confident, and anxious to finish all of that. That particular event, in change, increased the nerves of the small red colt waiting for his turn. Magic couldn’t avoid shivering and hugging her mother strong, calling for the attention of other ponies in the room.
“Come on Magic. You’re going to be okay.” His mother said in a kind tone while she hugged him. Sweetie had learned since a long time ago that enough sweet and kind words were usually more than enough to give confidence to her son.
“You promise?” Magic asked with few tears in the eyes.
“Of course, honey.” Her mother said, calming the poor nervous creature a lot. The minutes passed and sooner than Magic was expecting, his sister came out from the consulting room with a lollipop in her mouth.
“Easy peasy!” Exclaimed with probably excess of confidence the blue filly.
“Are you serious?” The shivering foal asked his sister.
“Of course! But do you know what? The doctor said that he is kinder with pegasus than unicorns…” The filly said pretty proud of her wings in that exact moment, even extending them a bit.
“R-R-Really?” The little unicorn asked shivering like gelatin in an earthquake.
“You can bet on that.” The big sister said looking at Magic straight to his eyes. In the middle of that situation, Sweetie and Red Dark could have irrupted, but suddenly another voice from the corridor said: “Magic!” The little pony could feel how his heart jumped straight to his belly as the nervous sensation turned into fear in just a second.
“Come on honey, you’re going to be okay,” Sweetie told as she walked slowly to the consult with her son. His mother's words helped to reduce the stress over the foal in that dramatic and tense moment. After a few seconds, both ponies finally crossed the door in the middle of the corridor.
“Hello!” Said a kind and sweet male voice coming from the inside. Magic had been in that place several times before, but it looked as strange and scary as usual. A strong medicine essence was easy to catch once they were inside, the environment was cold and the whole room was made of a completely flat white color, with no windows and a couple of lights in the roof.
“Hello, Dr. Kindheart. Do you remember our little sugar cube, right?” The lovely mother said when she approached the desk where a cream-coated unicorn with glasses and a big smile was just sit down on the other side.
“Of course! Magic, the little unicorn. How have you been sweetie?” The doctor asked kindly as he approached his face to the foal being carried by his mom. Magic felt immediately paralyzed by the strange voice and the bit weird appearance of the doctor, with the glasses, the white coat, and the weird gray gadget around his neck, that the poor colt couldn’t spit a word.
“Still too shy I guess.” The doctor said returning to his chair.
“Yeah, he is a bit scared. He fears hospitals.” Sweetie tried to explain a bit ashamed by her son’s attitude.
“I see. Okay, there’s no problem. Let’s go Magic. We will do a check-up for you.” The doctor explained as he walked to another part of the room. Magic walked next to his mother to where the doctor was going. The place looked pretty much like the classrooms of the Magic Kindergarten where the colt used to go, but somehow, it looked less friendly despite the colorful decoration.
“Let’s get started little one.” The doctor said as he kindly moved Magic to the stretcher and take out his stethoscope. Magic looked a bit unsure of what Mr. Kindheart was about to do and tried to move away.
“Don’t worry Magic. This gadget helps me to hear your heart. Do you want to try?” The doctor said as he put the gadget’s earpieces on Magic’s ears, so he was able to hear the doctor’s heart.
“Hehe, sounds funny!” Magic exclaimed. “Thump… Thump… Thump…” He tried to describe.
“See? I told you don’t have to worry.” Dr. Kindheart said excited as he proceeded to hear Magic’s heart and lungs.
“Everything sounds good. Now let’s check your eyes.” The doctor then used a light to focus directly on Magic’s pupils.
“Nice. Now your ears.” Kindheart said and continue revising Magic’s body carefully. The doctor had the kind gesture of describing each thing he was about to do to make Magic feeling more comfortable. With the pass of minutes, Magic felt more and more confident about the check-up. He was starting to think indeed that it was funny.
“Okay, now I want to check that horn.” The doctor said levitating a magnifying glass to watch better the little unicorn’s horn.
“Everything looks good. Could you make it bright for me Magic?” The doctor asked still looking carefully. The young colt then closed his eyes and focused to make some magic, then his horn suddenly bright.
“Amazing! That’s a really healthy and strong unicorn!” Dr. Kindheart said impressed by the Magic’s aura.
“Well done little one! Now let’s check your height.” The kind doctor said this time moving Magic back to the ground and inviting him to walk to one of the walls which had a big drawing of Princess Celestia standing up in a majestic posture with a ruler drawn next to her body.
“Wow! Three inches more than last time! Some pony is growing up pretty fast!” The doctor said as he pet Magic’s head a little. The little colt couldn’t feel better with that expression and he was practically completely relaxed now.
“Okay. We’re almost done. Magic. Would you mind going to the small playground in the corner for a few minutes while I talk with your mommy?” Dr. Kindheart asked. Magic accepted immediately and ran to take some construction blocks to make a tower since they were his favorite toys of all. Magic was pretty used to those kinds of adult conversations where he was better just playing afar from them, so he didn’t feel bad at all.
“It seems that everything is good Magic…” Dr. Kindheart said kindly as he went back with Magic next to his mother. Magic could feel a fresh wave of relaxation crossing his entire body as everything was about to finish in any second… Finally…
“Oh!... Wait a minute!” The doctor suddenly said while he was revising quickly a piece of paper. Magic’s relaxation was cut abruptly. “Right. Magic needs his Cutie Pox Vaccine. I’ll return in a minute.” The kind cream-coated pony added.
“V-Vaccine?” Magic said with the same nervous tone that he had before entering the consulting room. It was like if Magic’s sky turned gray in a millisecond and the happiness of the world disappeared when that word, that ugly word, was mentioned. Magic knew perfectly what that meant, and it couldn’t be worse!
“Here we are!” The doctor said as he approached like a kind of evil villain to the foal holding a big, too big, extremely big needle with his magic. The little colt could almost feel the evil energy around the now so bad doctor when that pointy and scary object was presented in the scene. He wanted to introduce that in his soft skin to cause him a really big pain.
“No! No! No!” The little unicorn screamed jumping to mommy’s hooves quickly while he began to be in panic and cry in her back. “Doctor wants to hurt me! Doctor wants to hurt me!” He screamed even louder.
“Come on Magic. This is not going to hurt.” The doctor tried to say while the little colt cried desperately.
“That’s a lie! It hurts a lot!” Magic said.
“Magic, please…” His mother said as she carried him in her hooves trying to calm the poor creature. Magic stopped crying and he looked his mother to the eyes. “I need you to be brave. Can you do it for mommy?” She added. Magic suddenly felt that he had to do that, it could hurt, but it was going to make his mommy proud of him. Then Magic looked both to the doctor and his mommy while they were waiting for an answer.
“Okay…” Magic said cleaning his tears carefully.
“Good!” The doctor carried Magic to the stretcher again for the procedure. “You can hug Mr. Hugs if you need a friend.” The doctor added showing him a small plush of a cute purple unicorn that Magic hugged without thinking it twice. Magic was pretty nervous and shivering a little bit. He couldn’t avoid having more tears in his eyes while he was waiting for the moment. He suddenly closed the eyes and hugged the plush as hard as he was able to. He could feel how the doctor displaced a little bit his diaper and then a pain was felt in his flank.
“All done!” Dr. Kindheart said. Those words really surprised the scared unicorn who thought it was going to be thousands of times worse if not millions.
“Really?!” Magic asked confused as he opened his eyes quickly and looked to his flank were a small sting was. The doctor quickly used a cure band with a heart drawing to cover it, and he put the diaper again in the right place.
“Well done Magic!” The doctor said happily.
“Yes. That’s my brave colt!” Sweetie Dash said really proud of Magic. “Can we go now, doctor?” She added.
“Uh… Yes… But maybe you will need this before you go…” The doctor said as he levitated a new diaper to the mother and pointed to Magic’s diaper which looked a bit more “used” than minutes ago.
“Oh yes… We better change you Magic. I guess that… You were really scared.” Sweetie said taking the diaper that the doctor offered and her saddlebag with the rest of things to change the little colt. “I’m sorry doctor...” Sweetie added a bit embarrassed.
“Don’t worry. Those things happen the whole time. The bathroom is over there.” The kind pony said pointing to the opposite side of the consulting room.
“Oh! I almost forgot!” Dr. Kindheart said when, a few minutes later, Sweetie and his son were ready to leave.
“Take one Magic.” The doctor showed him a jar full of lollipops of all the possible flavors. “Actually, on second thoughts… You were really brave Magic. Take two!” He added.
“Really? Thanks!” Magic said kindly as he took one lollipop of strawberry and one more of lemon.
“Bye Dr. Kindheart!” Sweetie said happily.
“Bye!” Magic said enjoying one of the sweet lollipops while both walked through the corridor.
“Look Sky! I won two!” Magic presumed to his sister the two lollipops that the doctor gave to him. “It seems that I’m double brave than you.” The proud and now relaxed colt added.