[Solstice Heights] Quiet, Too Quiet [Open]

[Astalakio]

Dr. Betterbones relaxed back into the beanbag he'd recently had installed in his office in place of a proper seat. He stretched his legs out lazily and exhaled in a sigh. His practice was empty, as it had been for the whole week thus far. His white labcoat hung unused by the front door.

This was the thing about living in Solstice Heights, he reflected as his pale green eyes drifted up to look at the blank white expanse of the ceiling. Unlike in Canterlot, where there were so many ponies always rushing around that it was bound to end in disaster, sometimes whole months passed here without any visitors to his practice. Except for general check-ups, but those were boring.

He sat still, staring at the ceiling, his mind, for once, empty of thoughts.

It was awful.

He was a doctor. It was his job to make ponies better, and yet while everypony was well and good, he was sitting around in here gathering dust! A part of him just wished something exciting or interesting would walk through that door, but nothing ever did.

He sighed again, a sigh of overdramatic misery, and rolled over until he fell off the beanbag and onto the floor with a thud.

"Well, then," He started, getting to his feet and brushing himself off busilly. "I'm sure there's bound to be something outside the office that requires my not inconsiderable skill and attention!"

He looked about himself expectantly.

"Oh." He mumbled, realising he was still quite alone, "I need to find someone to keep my ego in check..."

He trotted over to the door at a liesurely pace, flicking his horn and causing his labcoat to fly through the air and settle snuggly over his back.

"Ready to go!" He beamed, eyes sparkling with energy, "Ready to head out there into the big, wide outdoors and face all the dangers and excitement that come with it!"

He paused with his hoof on the door.

"Am I building this up too much?" He asked, looking around. Again he found that he was alone. "Oh... yes. Well..." He nodded, and opened the door.

[Armony]

Midnight Orchid had just finished her last weather job for the day, bucking a dark looking cloud that had been hovering over the heart of Canterlot into oblivion. On any normal day, she would find somewhere a short distance from her home to practice her stunt flying, or maybe drop in on one of her friends that was around. But today was far from a normal day for this weathermare, for she was headed, not to somewhere within Canterlot, but down to Solstice Heights. This wasn't a trip for any kind of fun and games either; Midnight needed to see a doctor.

She was used to the regular aches and pains that came with the occasional day of hard work, but lately she'd been having constant pain in the joint of one of her wings. It had started about a week ago, and instead of going away like her regular pains, this had only gotten worse over time. As for her decision to visit a doctor outside of Canterlot, she figured she had waited long enough to get checked on, she couldn't hope that a doctor in Canterlot to be available on such short notice. Besides that, she had heard of a supposedly amazing doctor who lived down in Solstice Heights, an area where hardly anypony really needed a doctor. His name was something like Dr. Betterbones, and she was certain that he would be the fastest way to get her wing checked out.

As Midnight flew down toward the office, she pulled a few loops to give herself more time to slow down, to make sure she didn't smash through the door. Landing on the ground, she folded her wings in and stepped into the building after reading the sign, confirming that this was, indeed, Dr. Betterbones' building. Seeing that there was nopony in the waiting room, and not being one to wait around on nopony, Midnight simply walked to the doctor's office. She was about to knock on the door when it was instead opened by a sky blue unicorn with a black mane. She took special note of his cutie mark; a bone with a pair of green crosses.

"Excellent timing!" she said, the surprise of the door opening in front of her not disturbing her flow at all. She was far too used to slightly more dangerous surprises, considering the line of work she had chosen, to let a little thing like a door opening bother her. She extended a hoof out to who she assumed was the doctor and continued, saying, "My name's Midnight Orchid, and I'm here looking for a Doctor Betterbones... is that you?"

[Astalakio]

Pony!

The suddenly appearing, purple and winged variety! Her sudden materialisation had thrown him, to say the least. He'd gotten so used to being alone in his office that a sudden presence besides his own gave him quite a fright. Still, he managed to restrain his surprise, restricting it to a quick widening of the eyes and a recoil from the doorway. The mare that stood before him didn't seem at all surprised, however.

Before he had a chance to observe why she was here, a hoof was offered to him by way of greeting. Instead of offering his own, he suddenly put both his hooves out, took hold of her right one and pulled it closer to him. He looked at it with an intense stare for a long moment, before letting her have it back, and declaring,

"Your right hoof is fine, anything else bothering you?"

He shook his head then and chuckled to himself.

"I'm sorry, just a little doctor humour for you there. That's actually one of the better jokes. I should know, I made most of them up. They're a little bit of a sour bunch when it comes to comedy in the medical circles..." His eyes had wandered off to the ceiling above his new guest as he spoke, and it took him a second to snap out of his irrelevant train of thought and come back to the present situation.

"Where was I? Oh, yes, forgive me, I am Doctor Betterbones. Come on in."

He turned back into his office and went back to his desk. Another seat was set up next to his beanbag chair for patients. Once his patient was a foal, and the young pony assumed the beanbag was for him and the chair for the adult, and took the appropriate place without asking. Betterbones had set himself sulkily down into the chair opposite and moodily got on with his job.

Having prepped himself up for heading outdoors, it might have come as an annoyance that he was trapped once more in his office, but in actual fact the case was quite the opposite - the office in which he had nothing to do was a prison cell. The office with a patient that needed his help was both a life calling and a chance to show off, all rolled into one!

"So then, Midnight Orchid, what appears to be the problem?" He plonked himself back down on the beanbag and placed his hooves together in a bizarrely contemplative manner which contrasted with the furniture on which he sat. "Your left wing, I think?"

[Armony]

No, the sudden door opening had not, could not have, thrown off Midnight Orchid's flow. What had thouroughly shocked her was the behavior of the doctor she had met on the other side of said door. She was accustomed the the way doctors in Cloudsdale acted; it was like they felt their medical talents, related talents, and even the patients were a nearly unbearable burden on their life. For lack of a better way to think about it, it seemed like this doctor actually enjoyed doing his job. This was, however, the only comforting thought keeping Midnight from bolting off to find a different doctor.

After having inspected her hoof she had offered in greeting for any damage, the doctor had returned to his office and sat down in a beanbag chair at his desk. Midnight looked around the room, hoping to see another, and was disheartened that the only other seats available didn't look nearly so comfortable. Just as she was taking up her seat and preparing herself to explain everything, she was surprised yet again when Doctor Betterbones spoke. "So then, Midnight Orchid, what appears to be the problem?" Before Midnight could respond to the question, however, his voice came again, answering itself, "Your left wing, I think?"

If this doctor was so good that he could tell her wing was bothering her just by looking, then that solidified in her mind that she had indeed come to the right place. No wasting time, no asking for long-winded explanations; she would be back in the sky, pain free, in no time at all. She sat down in the chair next to the beanbag and responded, "Yeah, my joint right here," she pointed to it as she spoke, "has been really hurting for the last week or so. I thought I should get it checked out, just to make sure it isn't anything serious."

[Astalakio]

Betterbones could spot an injury from a mile away (a skill he prided himself on), but it was always a good feeling when he received confirmation of his immediate observations.

"Probably a wise decision, it's better to be safe than sorry." the doctor nodded upon hearing of the pegasus' problem and decision to get checked out. She also answered the first question he was going to ask: how long it had been hurting for. A week, then. If she'd been stubbornly flying around in pain for a week, it couldn't have been the pain of a break or serious fracture. He didn't no anypony who could stand that for a week. A hefty bruise, then?

"Let's take a look it at and see what we can see." He said, "Can you spread both wings out as far as you can?" He swept his own upper limbs about in a wide gesture to demonstrate.

Of course, a bruise would have involved an impact of some kind, and Midnight Orchid didn't mention one in her little summary. Perhaps, Betterbones reflected, he should take a look at the wing before he tried to diagnose the problem.

"Do you get wing pains often, or is this a first-time problem?" He enquired as he examined the wing in question.

[Armony]

At the request of Dr. Betterbones, Midnight Orchid slowly stretched out both wings until the were fully open, wincing several times as the pain in her left wing intensified. "There," she announced, glad that she was actually able to get her wings to their full extension, regardless of how much it hurt. And oh, did it hurt, she thought to herself as the doctor examined the joint.

While examining, the doctor asked her, "Do you get wing pains often, or is this a first-time problem?" She was about to answer with a 'no, of course not'; however, that wouldn't have been true, she told herself. There had been plenty of days when she had come home and felt like doing nothing by lying down and sleeping off the pain in her wings. And things had been getting worse ever since...

"Every now and then I've been sore after a rough day of work, but it's never been anything a good nap couldn't take care of." Midnight responded, barely resisting the urge to plant her hoof directly into her own face for just now realizing her own stupidity. "And now that I think about it, over the last couple months, I've been going home sore more often than usual, but I really didn't think much about it at the time. I've been stepping up my practice flights a bit, and I thought I just needed to get used to the extra flying I was doing. You know... lots of stunt flying." 'Too late to do anything about it now though', she thought morosely, hoping that she hadn't managed to do any serious harm to herself with her new routine.

[Astalakio]

Seeing the exact moments in the opening of the wing that caused Midnight to wince acted as something of a clue as to what the problem was. As he had thought, it wasn't a break or a fracture, but if, as she said, she had been doing stunt practices, the chance that it could be a bruise was greater. But a bruise generally required an application of pressure to create pain, and no pressure was being put on it in simply opening the wing.

"Stunt flying indeed. I wouldn't have thought the moves and methods used by weathermares could cause this kind of damage," He mumbled as he got back to his hooves and circled around his patient. He'd guessed at her profession when he saw her cutie mark. "I have, however, dealt with similar cases before, not in weathermares but in performers. Always ponies that test their own limits. A wonderbolt, once..." His words trailed off as he became distracted by his examination. Knowing that the injury was a painful one, he made sure to keep away from the actual joint, and when he pressed a hoof against the wing, it was very gently, and only to slightly readjust the positioning.

"Hmm." He nodded wisely. "You young things will push yourselves, won't you? Oh well, I don't suppose I'd have you stay indoors all day. Nothing would get done. Let's see here..."

He trotted back to his desk and opened a drawer. From within, he pulled out a little model of a pegasus skeleton which he set down carefully on the desk. With a thoughtful stare and a glow of his horn, one of the tiny plastic bones came away from the left wing of the model, and the left wing promptly fell off.

"Ah, just as I thought!" He announced, turning back to Midnight Orchid. "I believe you have a severe sprain."

Of course, he knew this before he got the skeleton model out, and after hearing about her having sore wings quite often, he was pretty much ready to make his diagnosis based on previous experience. But he did like to put on a show.

[Armony]

Midnight sat as still as she could stand to be in the chair while Doctor Betterbones examined her wing for what seemed like forever to her. By now, she wanted nothing more than to go back home and fall asleep on a cloud, but she knew that, no matter what came of this visit, she really needed it. At the doctor's comment about weathermare work not being able to cause 'this kind of damage', whatever that kind of damage was, she had to smile to herself. "Yeah, most of the weather jobs around here are pretty boring by themselves, so I like to, uh... spice things up a bit when I'm on the job. I mean, why settle for just bucking at the clouds all the time when you can be so much more creative about it?"

Midnight then saw Dr. Betterbones move over to his desk and pulled out a small model of a pegasus skeleton and set it up. He seemed to be deep in thought when one of the miniscule bones removed itself from the model; Midnight noticed that it came from the left wing. Suddenly, the entire left wing on the model fell off, and she couldn't suppress a gasp of shock. At that, the doctor seemed satisfied, announcing to her, "Ah, just as I thought! I believe you have a severe sprain."

Oblivious to all things medicine, Midnight had assumed the worst from the little show Dr. Betterbones had put on with the model, not realizing it was only for show. "Y'know, now that I think about it, my wing isn't really bothering me that bad," she asserted, not even sounding like she believed a single word she was saying the whole time. "And I'm sure you're a great doctor and all, but Ireallydon'twannalosemywing" she got the last few words out as fast as she could before turning to fly out of the office at top speed. Rather, she would have flown out of the office at top speed, but there was a rather sturdy door in the way, and she painfully slammed into it instead of escaping.

[Haserman]

Orange had been wandering through Solstice Heights for a while now, he was limping slightly on his rear left leg, his face covered in ash and the tips of his wings slightly singed but even through his injuries he still was able to smile. "What are the chances, a small explosion and some lightning isn't enough to stop me" Orange chuckled under his breath "Oh well it can't be that bad it was only a small explosion and a bit of fire, I am sore though ... Ah a doctor's surgery, this might be a better option compared to trotting back to Stalliongrad to see the family doctor". Orange was only passing by Solstice Heights to deliver his wares but due to some unforeseen circumstances ended up battered, bruised and slightly singed but surprisingly relaxed about his injuries.

Orange walked up to the front of the Doctor's surgery, "Dr. Betterbones, what an impressive Doctor's surgery for such as small town" Orange thought aloud 'Oh well a doctor is a doctor right?' Orange thought to himself as he began to walk/limp towards the door. *crash* The door to Dr. Betterbones's office shook immensely 'um ok' Orange thought, not noticing the pegasus shaped mark on the inside of the frosted glass door.

Orange pushed the door open, the door felt slightly heavier than any other normal door but Orange just assumed it to him just being tired. Orange continued to push the door open he heard a small bell above him to announce his arrival. Orange walked into the clean Doctor's surgery, it looked like any other stereotypical doctor's office except for a beanbag 'must be for the foals' Orange assumed. Orange began to look around a bit more 'seems pretty normal anatomical posters, pony skeleton, computer, books, knocked out pegasus by the door ... wait what' Orange looked down to the pegasus he had just pushed away with the door "Oh sweet Celestia I'm so sorry, what happened did I make it worse areyouhurtohClesetiapleasesayyou'reok". Orange began to panic 'what if I killed her, oh no I don't want to go to prison they do stuff to colts like me in there, or maybe I'll get banished I don't want to get banished, I like being unbanished' Orange continued to work himself up, he could feel the darkness start to surround his eyes. His last thoughts were about being banished as a banana as he collapsed onto the ground.

[Astalakio]

Midnight seemed to go into somewhat of a panic, and Doctor Betterbones started chuckling lightly again, preparing to tell her that he was just messing around, and that it wasn't that serious, but then the pegasus leapt away and into the door to his office, prompting him to go quickly silent and look suddenly rather vexed at the erratic behaviour.

"Um. That won't help." He observed usefully.

He began to walk forward to go and help her up, but stopped in his tracks when the door Midnight had crashed against opened into the room, and an ash-covered face peeked inside. Before the doctor could greet the new arrival or tell him he'd be with him in just a moment, the newcomer delivered a rather panicked little monologue that ended rather climactically with not one, but two ponies lying on the floor of his office.

Calmly confused by all this, the doctor observed the tableau that had unravelled before him. It would certainly be amusing, if it wasn't happening in his office, to his patients, who he was trying to fix. When he walked over to the two younger ponies, it was with a quickened pace. His first act was to check that the unconscious pony was still breathing - it looked like a fainting spell, but the doctor wasn't ready to chance it being a seizure. He tilted the ash-covered head and listened to the breathing. Steady enough. His mind readjusted to the situation based on this new knowledge and prioritised what to do. He turned his attention back to Midnight.

"Midnight Orchid, are you alright? I trust you haven't managed to cave your skull in? Well then, if it's quite alright with you, we'll deal with getting you a prescription in just a moment for that wing, but for now I need you to do something very important..."

His horn began to glow with a soft light again, and the body of the unconscious pony rose gently into the air. He walked with it over to a long white table and set it gently down on top.

"There are no nurses working here right now, and I really need some cold water to splash on our friend here to wake him out of his stupor. Being unconscious is a lot more dangerous than you might think. There is a faucet down the hall, would you mind dashing off and getting some water for us? Quick-as-you-can, but don't fly on that sprained wing, for goodness' sakes, that's the last thing we need."

He would check Midnight Orchid for head damage after her impact too, but for now he needed to make sure the newcomer was going to be alright. He set about removing a white pillow from a nearby storage container and getting it placed under the male pony's head.

[Astalakio]

((Accidental double-post. Sorry ))

[Armony]

Midnight could feel the whole world shifting, even though she knew that she was still planted firmly against the door to the office, not wanting to move for fear of her wing being taken. The next thing she knew, there was some stallion ranting about how he didn't want to be banished, but before she could get a word in to let him know that she was okay, he had fainted. She couldn't help but snort at the hilarity of the situation at hoof; a doctor who can't have been used to more than two or three patients a week now had two rather hysterical cases in his office at the same time. And she had thought he was going to take away her wing, when all he really wanted to do was give her medicine. Medicine, she told herself, that would stop her wing from falling off, like the one on the model had.

Finally feeling that she understood the situation perfectly, she followed the instructions from Doctor Betterbones and fetched some water from down the hall. It was hard on her to keep her wings pinned to her sides the entire time, but somehow she had managed not to make more of a foal of herself as she poured water into a nearby bucket. Once the bucket was nearly full, she grabbed it carefully in her mouth and returned to the office to see that the dark orange stallion now had a pillow under his head and was being tended to by Dr. Betterbones.

Catching herself just before taking off, Midnight remembered that she wasn't supposed to fly to deliver the water from the bucket onto the stallion. Thinking for a moment about how she was going to do this, she positioned the chair she had been sitting in a few moments ago next to the stallion and placed the bucket on the seat. Then, using her head, which was starting to develop a dull throbbing sensation to it, she pushed at the top of the bucket, sending it and its contents down on top of the orange stallion.

[Haserman]

Orange had been dreaming of his wonderful farm and of his family back in Stalliongrad, of the green fields surrounding his small humble home where he would make and brew his own vodka and of the sudden flooding of the world. Orange awoke suddenly hugging a extraordinarily fluffy white pillow, on the floor, sore, covered in ash and quite frankly more confused than usual. "What?" Orange managed to mutter out with his eyes half closed still he felt like he could sleep for a week, slowly the memories started to come back to him, the explosion the trot to Solstice Heights the doctor's office the pegasus he had recently killed as Orange suddenly remembered why he had been panicking 'the imperial guard are already on their way' Orange thought. "Must escape" Orange muttered still half dazed he took off into the direction he remembered where the door was.

*thud*

For the second time today Dr. Betterbones's door had received two high speed delusional patients but was still able to hold fast the only remnants of it's battle with these pegasi was the large pegasus imprints on the frosted glass. Orange somewhat more dazed after fighting with the door realised he was trapped he would obviously be sent to prison for malicious pony-slaughter where he would live out the rest of his days working the rocks turning them into gravel. "I give up" Orange quietly muttered, Orange now was emotionally and physically deflated and defeated as he lay battered and bruised body on the floor, his eyes closed, just waiting for the guards to take him away. Thinking back to his farm, his family and his glorious Orange Tundra brand Vodka all Orange could do was sigh.

[Astalakio]

The doctor was quite surprised when Midnight took it upon herself to drench the unconscious pony where he lay on the table.

"That's going the extra mile..." He noted, and looked at her, "I was just going to flick some at him." He made a flicking motion with his hoof to demonstrate, as the orange pony began to stir. "I suppose your way works too."

The orange and ash-covered pony opened his eyes, and Betterbones could practically see his memory coming back to him (which meant no amnesia, which was a good thing at least). He opened his mouth to tell him not to do anything drastic, but before he could the new arrival had slammed into the door of his office.

"Do I have a pony magnet installed in my door?!" Betterbones demanded, baffled by this repeated motif that was developing. He wondered if maybe he should replace the darn thing with some curtains, or just have an empty doorway. If ponies kept running into it, it wouldn't be long before one of them did some serious damage to themself.

The pony that had now taken Midnight's previous position by the door had blurted something about an imperial guard, and now muttered that he was giving up. Betterbones shot Midnight a look of confusion accompanied by a shrug, before he walked back over to the orange pony and got down on the floor so that he was level with him.

"You think the guard's coming to take you away for injuring that pony?" He asked, and then pointed to Midnight with a hoof, "That pony who is stood over there?" He smiled, "I'm not a lawyer, but I don't think opening a door on somepony is enough to back an arrest warrant. Now. Stay still, eyes open wide."

He reached back into one of his coat pockets and retrieved a little black torch, which he gripped in his mouth. He then proceeded to shine it in one of the pony's eyes, keeping his head still with his hooves, and then the other. When he was satisfied with the results, he put the torch down and looked at him intently.

"Can you tell me your name, and count backwards from ten out loud?"

He glanced over his shoulder at Midnight, not wanting her to think he was neglecting one patient for another.

"Be with you in just a second."

[Armony]

Midnight was once again made aware of her lack of knowledge concerning anything that went on inside a doctor's office, this time the amount of water she should be using to wake somepony up. She simply shrugged at the doctor's remark, and replied "Least I didn't bring a cloud in here and make it rain on him. That's what we did if anypony passed out in flight school."

The orange pony on the table began stirring, and the next thing Midnight knew, he had managed to slam himself into the door to the office, just as she had a couple minutes ago. This time, she really did plant her hoof directly into her face, bursting out laughing at the doctor's reaction to this not-so-new turn of events. What concerned Midnight, though, was the orange pony seemed to be, or at least believe he was, on the run from the imperial guard.

Doctor Betterbones had caught on to what this stallion was getting at though, and Midnight laughed once again when she realized that the orange pony over there thought he had injured her. It was her own stupidity that had caused her to hit the door in the first place, and she wasn't really injured from the impact; her wing was more sore than her head! "Yeah, I don't think you're gonna get arrested for opening a door with a pegasus attached to the back, no matter how good of a weathermare she might be." she added on to the doctor's comment.

When the doctor turned his attention once again to the orange pony who had just come in, Midnight sat herself down in the chair again, all hope of getting out of here quickly dissolving. Doctor Betterbones assured her that he would be with her in "just a second", and she had half a mind to count "one" out loud and demand his attention. But, she knew better than to test his patience, which seemed to already be wearing thin with the eccentric patients he was getting today. So instead, she just sat back and watched as he tended to the orange pony, mind in clouds and all the awesome stunts she was going to do amongst them once her wing was fixed.

[Haserman]

'The farm, my life will be gone' Orange thought to himself

"You think the guard's coming to take you away for injuring that pony? That pony who is stood over there? I'm not a lawyer, but I don't think opening a door on somepony is enough to back an arrest warrant. Now. Stay still, eyes open wide.Can you tell me your name, and count backwards from ten out loud?"

"Wait ... What. That's mighty awkward, sorry. Did I break your door? I didn't mean to I just can get a bit worked up on somethings. Did I feint, I did didn't I? This doubles the awkwardness" Orange began to blurt out trying to stop the doctor worrying about him, Orange didn't really like being the centre of attention and the flashlight the Doctor was shining in his eyes didn't help, Orange tried to make himself as small as possible even though he was still laying down. "Why is my face so wet, that doesn't really make much sense since I was in a vodka explosion with fire and stuff, mind you it was only a small one" . Orange remembering the doctors first request "Oh right I'm Dimitri Orangiko Tundra, but just call me Orange Tundra it's much less painful than trying to listen to ponies try and say my name with a Stalliongradish accent" Orange stated with a stronger accent on his name than usual "and I'm fine I've had worse there was this one time when ... oh never mind I won't bore you with the details but lets just say it involved a large house, 4 ponies, a cart and 3 bottles of Vodka" Orange stopped himself when he realised he had started to ramble a bit.

"I see your busy Doctor Betterbones so I can just wait I'm just a little bruised and singed but I'm fine ... really but I do have a splitting headache now" Orange smiled trying the reassure the Doctor on how fine he actually was. Orange immediately stood up on his hooves only to realise one of them to be sprained, Orange winced a little be was able to walk/limp his way to a seat and sat down, patiently quietly berating himself on how foalish he was and tried to measure how much dignity he had just lost then.

[Astalakio]

This pony's rambling was a little irritating, but it definitely seemed to be brought on by social awkwardness rather than any damage. The doctor had finished with his torch by the time Orange had told him his name, and simply sat and listened to him with a bemused expression until the younger pony realised he was rambling and assured him that he would wait to be seen to. Betterbones was quite worried about this second patient of his, given that an explosion of any kind usually resulted in an instant trip to an emergency centre, rather than a stroll to the local doctor's (not that he didn't think he could handle it). However, since he already had a patient waiting on him, he had to take Orange's word that he would be alright for the moment.

"Good enough for me." Betterbones said, and waited until Orange was safely sat in the seat, before going back over to Midnight.

"Sorry about that." He said to her politely, "Since you were steady enough to go and fetch that water, we can assume you don't have a concussion, but..." He made a quick examination of Midnight's head, moving around her to make sure there was no serious damage that he could attend to. "Yes, expect a particularly pretty bruise tomorrow."

He then trotted back over to his desk, maintaining that casual pace he had kept in everything he did throughout this bizarre event. He never seemed to rush in anything he did or said. He retrieved a key from beneath a pile of papers that had accumulated on his desk, and used it to open a container in the cupboard from which he had got the pillows. Inside this container, which was little more than a long metal box, was an extensive set of different little pots, each one labelled and organised under categories. It took him less than a second to find the one he was after, and he placed it on the table between himself and Midnight. The pot of pills was soon joined by a piece of paper, which Betterbones wrote on, prescribing three-to-four pills a day, as required.

"Luckily, this pain medication will help with your head as well as that wing." He explained, "You'll be glad to hear it'll heal on its own. It will hurt for a while, however. I would usually instruct a patient not to use the limb in question at all for a few days, but I get the distinct impression that you're not the type for bedrest, so all I can say is to take one of these to help with the pain when it's bad, and try not to perform any stunts that are... too groundbreaking." He smiled hopelessly at that point, very much like a parent lecturing his child. "Oh, and these are for you too." He added, and placed a small paper packet on the table.

"Now," He continued, "Usually I give my patients eight cookies each, but you did fly into my door, and that might cause structural problems in the future. Therefore, I have deducted half of your cookie allowance, leaving you four."He held up a hoof as if expecting protest, "I'm sorry, but you've got to take a stand with these things, and that's how it is. Mr. Tundra over there will be receiving the same penalty, I assure you. So as long as there's nothing else you need help with, I think you'll be glad to know you're good to go."

He stopped abruptly, realising he had made an unconscious rhyme, and made a mental note to write that one down for one of his poems. Rhymes were in short supply these days, he found, and when you made one by accident, you certainly shouldn't just let it go.

[Armony]

Midnight gave a snort at Orange Tundra's rambling, but managed to keep from openly laughing... for now. Certainly, once she was out of here, she would have to get a good laugh out about the strange stallion. Once Orange's rant was done, Doctor Betterbones turned his attention back to her, getting things back on track about dealing with this sprain, or whatever he had called it. After examining her head from her impact with the door earlier, he went across the room and opened a lockbox with all sorts of jars in it.

When he set one on the table next to a piece of paper and told her they were for her, Midnight grabbed them and began reading the paper. It was a note telling her to take three or four pills each day, "as needed". She wasn't really sure when she would need to take them, but she assumed it couldn't hurt to split them evenly throughout the day, taking one pill every six hours.

At the mention of not using her injured wing for a few days from Doctor Betterbones, she really did burst into a fit of laughter. Once she'd calmed down a bit, she explained herself, "Oh yeah, telling me to not use my wing for a few days wouldn't be such a good idea. I sort of have to use it to get home. And work..." she grimaced at the thought of having to work without flying any stunts. "Oh, hay, work is going to be SO boring! And I guess going to the Nightmare Night Festival in Ponyville is probably out too?"

Doctor Betterbones had also set a small packet on the table by now, and he explained that there were cookies inside, but he had taken half of them for her accident with the door. She smiled back at him, taking the packet of cookies along with the jar of pills. "Hey, four cookies is better than no cookies, which is what I would have gotten if I'd gone to a doctor in Canterlot. No cookies and like a two hour wait before I could see anypony. Well, if I'm good to go, I'll be gettin' outta here. Thanks for everything doc, and..." she whispered the last bit into Doctor Betterbones' ear, "have fun with the psycho over there." Midnight walked out of the office, closed the door, and burst out into laughter on her wait through the waiting room and out of the building.

[Haserman]

Orange had must have fallen asleep upon the lounge as he was awoken by the chiming of the small bell over the door, 'oh that other pegasus must have left' Orange thought as a pony outside started to laugh hysterically, Orange just placed that down to a random happening. 'That pegasus was quite strange, she kept on looking at me as if I was crazy or something, all I did was walk in here, panic ... and feint' "oh damn it" Orange muttered to himself.

Orange was hoping that he wouldn't make as much as a strange reputation as he did in Ponyville at the recent Nightmare Night where he had feinted approximately 3 times and had hid in a innocent bush, which was eventually uprooted and used as an escape vehicle. "Well great I guess I just emanate craziness" Orange just muttered somewhat deflated "now I guess I'll have to add this town on the list of towns that think I'm a mad pony" Orange suddenly remembered why he was on this couch in this building.

Orange noticed the doctor standing near his desk looking somewhat bored and curious at the same time 'he probably thinks I'm crazy pony by now who talks to himself' Orange contemplated "So yeah" Orange began speaking awkwardly "I'm just here to make sure I didn't like break anything too important when my cart ... uh sort of exploded it wasn't that bad trust me" Orange tried to defend himself to prevent the Doctor to send him to pony hospital which would take a far too much time and would generally be a hassle "as far as I can tell I'm just a little singed but I'm just here to make sure I'm ok before I start my trek back to Stalliongrad" Orange stated casually finishing off with a cheesy smile in an effort to convince the Doctor that he wasn't that bad. "I don't really remember the incident all that well but I do remember dragging my cart in the rain and then a loud poof and then a bang and then darkness" Orange made the actions with his hooves to imitate the sounds (somehow) "when I awoke my cart was gone but in its place was a large crater some of the nearby trees were singed and some on fire and I was a little more tipsy than usual"

[Astalakio]

Having waited until Midnight was gone and out the way, another satisfied patient, Betterbones turned his attention to Orange, who seemed to be chattering to himself. He waited patiently until the stallion remembered what was going on, and then moved over to examine him as he explained his situation.

"How interesting!" He said, as he carefully examined Orange's torso, locating some bad bruising along his ribs. "I've never met a pony who brews vodka, you know. I've also never met a pony who's been in a vodka explosion, so you're something of a novelty, my friend. Stamp your rear left leg for me?"

That leg was worrying. He had noticed the pronounced limp when Orange had walked over to take his seat. A fracture, perhaps, or another sprain.

"Does that leg hurt more when you put pressure on it, or when you stretch it?" He enquired, stretching out his own left hind leg to demonstrate what he meant. A sprain was caused by an overstretched ligament, so if it was a sprain, it would hurt more to stretch it. He hoped it was a sprain, because a fracture would be far more problematic for both doctor and patient. With the bruising, a possible sprain or fracture, not to mention the slightly singed wings among other possible injuries he had yet to locate, it already looked less and less likely that Orange would be fit to leave for Stalliongrad any time today.

[Haserman]

"How interesting! I've never met a pony who brews vodka, you know. I've also never met a pony who's been in a vodka explosion, so you're something of a novelty, my friend. Stamp your rear left leg for me?"

"Yes I brew Vodka from my potatoes that I grow out near Stalliongrad, I was just transporting the bottles when I think a bolt of lightning or something struck my cart" Orange winced as he remembered the thought, it would take him weeks to gather and brew the next set of Vodka further delaying his deliveries. Orange remembering the Doctor's request began to place pressure on his rear left leg "it doesn't hurt too much not enough to stop me returning to Stalliongrad", Orange was already thinking out the hate mail he would be receiving for yet another late delivery.

"Does that leg hurt more when you put pressure on it, or when you stretch it?"

"A bit of both my friend, but I assure you it isn't too bad, I managed to walk here without too much trouble ... even though I can't remember most of it, I must have been in a bit of a haze", Orange's eyes looked up in an effort to remember what had happened before he had appeared at the Doctor's office, Orange looked slightly dejected and muttered "nope still can't remember"

Orange was still hopeful of his speedy return to his humble potato/vodka farm to try to produce the lost stock as quickly as possible, if not some of his customers may turn to the alternative cheaper cider that he despised so much. For as long as Orange could remember vodka was only popular in Stalliongrad but after his creation of his farm his life goal was to popularise vodka to the larger Equestrian market, so far many bars and other establishments now sell vodka over the counter, but there was still much to go. If Orange could not continuously supply vodka, months of hard work of advertising and product placement would go down the drain. Orange looked upon the doctor with hopeful eyes waiting for his ultimate prognosis, hoping by Celestia's beard that he would be able to go back to his farm as soon as possible.

[Astalakio]

This pony was being rather unhelpful, Betterbones decided, and even as Orange kept assuring him that his injuries were nothing serious and that he'd be fine to return home, he was thinking the opposite. Everypony was so eager to rush off these days. He could understand it from the stunt flying Midnight Orchid that was in here a moment ago, but would it be such a crime if Orange missed a few vodka deliveries because of a serious injury? As a doctor, Betterbones obviously thought not.

Still, he would cross that bridge when they came to it. First, to complete his diagnosis.

Orange said that his leg hurt when he was stretching it and when he was putting pressure on it. That meant it was sprained, but even if he said it didn't hurt too badly, he couldn't risk there being a fracture as well. For all he knew, Orange was just putting on a strong front and was actually in quite severe pain. It didn't seem likely, but he'd known patients to do so before.

"I'm going to use a spell to check for a fracture." He informed his patient, as he opened a book on his desk and flicked to the right page. It was a spell he used quite frequently, but it was always good to remind oneself of the correct execution before performing it. "If it doesn't hurt too much, as you say, you've probably just got a sprain, but if you do have a fracture, even a small one, and we leave it, it could cause some very bad problems in the future. Now, stay still."

He took a step back and lowered his head so that his horn pointed toward Orange's leg. Then his horn began to glow with a faint purple aura, which soon spread to his eyes, and finally to the leg he was staring at.

He stayed in this position, with intense glowing eyes, for a full minute.

This spell allowed him to see the bones in the leg, as if he were peering right through the skin and muscle. He looked carefully at the bones and the joints, but there was no visible damage.

Satisfied, he lifted his head again and the glowing auras around his horn and eyes and Orange's leg all vanished at once.

"Congratulations." He smiled, "No fracture."

So it was just a sprain in his leg. It was also a very long way to Stalliongrad, but perhaps if he made him take someone with him, and if he was going to fly most of the way, he would be alright to go home. Betterbones didn't want to keep him here if he didn't want to stay - but he would if he thought it was for the best.

Something else that Orange had said was bothering him now.

"I managed to walk here without too much trouble ... even though I can't remember most of it, I must have been in a bit of a haze."

Memory loss wasn't a good sign, even though he'd already checked for full-on brain trauma, he might still have a concussion.

"Does your head hurt? Well, I mean, did it still hurt from the explosion before you rammed it against my office door?"

[Haserman]

Orange was always a little wary about unicorn magic but sometimes it was just unavoidable. Orange just tried to ignore the worst case scenarios running through his head, ranging from massive explosion to a large gelatinous fire. 'After I get the ok from the Doctor I can leave' Orange thought to himself over and over again in an effort to calm himself.

"Congratulations. No fracture"

Orange was quite relieved at the, Doctor's prognosis the sooner he could out of here the better. All Orange had to do was act like he wasn't in copious amounts pain and he could leave for Stalliongrad.

"Does your head hurt? Well, I mean, did it still hurt from the explosion before you rammed it against my office door?"

"Well it did, but it's probably nothing I probably just hit it against the ground" Orange hated lying to anypony 'no It wasn't a lie, it was just a half truth' Orange thought. Orange was still feeling a little weird after the cart mishap as if he as in a bit of a haze, Orange just put it down to just being tired and overworked. Orange looked around trying to avoid the Doctor's eyes, "wow why would there be such a large Doctor's office in a small town like this and why is it so empty, maybe he's a bad doctor, oh no the sooner I get out of here the better" Orange said aloud unaware he was monolouing his thoughts. "So yeah nothing to worry about just a bit of a headache, nothing some sleep back at home can fix" Orange said beginning to feel exceedingly tired. The ground seemed to move as and Orange swayed in an effort to try to stay upright, "I'm not that bad, I'm not that bad, really I'm fine" Orange began to mutter to himself as he started to fall down.

[Astalakio]

The more Orange tried to convince Betterbones that he was fine and that he was ready to get going, the less Betterbones believed that was the case. He couldn't help but raise a questioning eyebrow when the pony openly doubted his abilities as a doctor (as well as the size of his office), but his strangely liberal topics of speech didn't change anything about the situation. He was still, Betterbones was increasingly certain, unwell.

"So yeah nothing to worry about just a bit of a headache, nothing some sleep back at home can fix" The pegasus gushed, and the doctor seemed unimpressed.

"I believe that's my call to make." He pointed out, his voice perhaps a little more stern than before. He found that he had to take a stand when it came to stubborn patients. He'd figured that out very early on in his profession. "And if you truly believed that a good night's sleep would be all it took to fix your problems, well, you wouldn't be here, visiting me now, would you?"

He was about to inform the orange pony that his leg was sprained and his singed wings would give him trouble flying for a long distance, when his patient began to sway uneasily.

"Are you feeling lethargic?" He asked, and Orange fell down. Moving quickly, the doctor managed to catch him with a cushioning spell, and then he went about positioning him safely back down on the chair. "That'd be a yes then..." He muttered, "Headache, memory loss, restlessness, loss of balance... Orange Tundra, you are the walking definition of a grade two concussion. Now, there are no magic pills to fix your problem, but combined with your sprain and bruising, I'm definitely prescribing immediate bedrest. I'll be sending a letter to whomever it is you need to get back to, excusing you, because you need to recover here for at least a night. After that, we'll do some more tests to make sure you're safe to go home."

Standing close to the chair in which Orange sat in case he was going to fall again, Betterbones prepared to receive a bombardment of protestation. Orange didn't seem the type to attack him or throw any particularly severe insults around, but if he did, Betterbones would take it, because Orange was his patient, and the doctor was always right.

[Haserman]

"Headache, memory loss, restlessness, loss of balance... Orange Tundra, you are the walking definition of a grade two concussion. Now, there are no magic pills to fix your problem, but combined with your sprain and bruising, I'm definitely prescribing immediate bedrest. I'll be sending a letter to whomever it is you need to get back to, excusing you, because you need to recover here for at least a night. After that, we'll do some more tests to make sure you're safe to go home."

Orange was promptly placed into a chair only just barely hearing the last bit of the Doctor's rant, Orange had already started to form the most convincing argument he could possibly come up with at that present moment. "But, but ... bdssd-d-d bu-, but ... work need to fix, lots to do" Orange said half heartedly, he already knew that he was fighting a loosing battle. The Doctor seemed more stern than before but Orange could see the care in his eyes, the Doctor just wanted to make sure his patient was ok. Orange tried one last ditch attempt "But I'm the only person on my farm, I work alone you see" Orange said "I work better that way", Orange muttered under his breath. "If nobody's there absolutely no work will be done ... at all!". Orange put on the most convincing look he could muster at the moment in one last hope for escape.

Orange could see the determination in the Doctor's eyes and a look that could only be described as 'I'm the Doctor and the Doctor is always right', "Oh ok, you win, I'll just stay around here for a day. Do I have to stay here? If not is there a bar around here? No I doubt it, it's just such a small town am-I-right but hey why are you here, I mean for such a small town why would a Doctor like yourself be here? Oh don't worry about the bar, I never leave home without a bottle" Orange then immediately brought out a bottle of Vodka from seemingly out of nowhere and two shot glasses. It was a simple glass bottle containing crystal clear vodka, only to be blemished with a an orange tinted circle with the words 'vodka now 20% stronger' moulded into the glass. Orange just looked towards the Doctor and calmly asked "Want some, I made it myself?"