Renewal

Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony, nor am I profiting off this literary venture.

----

Spike looked through the open doors as he walked through the hospital, the doctors wanting to do one more test on him.

Well, they said with him. Being poked and prodded, told to stand this way or that, he didn't much feel like his participation was optional.

This time he was supposed to see some doctor called 'Ophthalmologist'. He was pretty sure that wasn't their name...

Pretty sure. He'd met Flaming Flatulence in Canterlot once. If that was a name, Ophthalmologist could be one too.

"Here we are, Spike." It was practically a separate wing of the hospital. There were various names, followed by letters like M.D. and Ph.D, all of it strung up on doors with words that twisted his understanding of Equiish.

"All of these doctors work here?" He assumed that's what they were. Doctors, nurses and janitors were the only ones who worked in hospitals, right?

"Well, yes, but they don't actually work for the hospital. This segment of the hospital is reserved for specialists or doctors running independent practices who are leasing space. For the most part, individuals coming to the hospital don't have eye injuries so they wouldn't need to see an eye doctor. That's what an ophthalmologist is, by the way." The name, in white lettering on a glass door, said Clarity Lens.

"Do I have to see her because of the burns on my face?" It was the only thing he could think of, why else would he need to see a doctor about his eye?

"Actually" She opened the door and waved for him to enter. "I noticed you squint a lot while you're reading and I brought it up with the doctor. He agreed that it wouldn't hurt to have a specialist see to you."

"It's not my fault! Most po-folks just have really bad writing is all." He gingerly set himself down on a chair to wait while Nurse Redheart was talking to the receptionist.

"Spike, most of what we've had you read were all printed. You barely paid any attention to the television when it was on and when we did get you some comics from the library you'd only read them for a few minutes at a time." She sat down next to him, her business with the receptionist taken care of.

"Those just... They aren't very interesting." What was he supposed to say? 'I'm sorry, your power gals comic just isn't as amazing as The Power Ponies'? He had no idea how to broach the whole 'Other Universe' subject.

Instead he'd kept quiet, tried to keep as many answers short and without detail. Referring to the ponies he knew as 'My friends' 'My boss' or 'My caretaker'.

The one po-person, the social worker, she seemed increasingly upset while he'd been doing this.

Called him a 'Brave little boy' when he (heavily) paraphrased how he'd been injured.

He certainly didn't feel brave. Especially not when he remembered the look on Twilight's face.

"Spike? Clarity will see you now." Another woman, a different nurse, said as she opened a side door, clipboard in hand. "Please come with me."

He hopped to his feet from the chair.

He grabbed the armrest of the chair as his entire abdomen screamed in fire.

A few deep breaths, he steadied himself, covering a grimace with a grin, and followed the nurse.

He never noticed the frown on Nurse Redhearts face.

----

"Alright Spike- Wait, Spike? Really?" Clarity Lens was an older ma-woman. Woman. Spike was hoping those slips would stay in his head instead of his speech.

Clarity Lens was an older woman, her hair was graying but her brown eyes were undeniably sharp. Though Spike wouldn't say it out loud, she was also definitely looking past her prime.

"Yeah, really. Why?" This wasn't the first time he'd gotten that reaction. The social worker had asked him the same thing.

"Nothing, sorry. It's just that my son has a dog with the same name. Supposed to be tough I guess, but really he's just a yappy little thing." Spike grunted, suddenly very unamused. "Oh, don't be like that. Have a seat and take that patch off, we'll go through a few tests before we check your vision."

He sat down in front of a large machine, straps made of materials he didn't recognize bridging odd pieces.

"Just set your chin in the strap right there, I'll be taking care of the rest." He did so, feeling incredibly nervous as he watched metal getting closer and closer to his face.

He nearly let out a sigh of relief when it stopped. It was so close, he was sure he'd poke something out if it moved any more towards him.

Then it spat out a puff of air, directly into his eyes. He nearly pulled away from the machine due to flinching so hard.

"Hey!" Clarity Lens was laughing, he most definitely wasn't. "What was that for?"

"Don't worry, Spike. It's just supposed to clear out any obstructions and equalize pressure, you know, to help make sure these tests are accurate." He grumbled but continued to cooperate. Shortly they moved on to some test where he had to say if he saw movement of some kind against a white field.

He felt like he'd failed that test.

They moved on to a test about colors, this one he was sure he did alright on.

Nearly forty minutes after it had all begun they'd moved to a different room. It was dimly lit and had a huge machine hanging from the ceiling.

"What's that supposed to do?" The ophthalmologist, Clarity Lens was staring at a clipboard even as she looked at what he was pointing to, the machine in the middle of the room.

"It's what we use to determine where your vision sits. We can manually adjust the refraction of light with it until we've determined what the appropriate offset is to appropriately match a deform." She flipped the page up before motioning for him to take a seat in the large leather chair under the machine.

Setting down her clipboard, she grabbed the handles of the behemoth and settled it on Spike's face. He was surprised to note that, while it felt tight, he had fully expected it to be heavy considering it's size.

"Now Spike, just go ahead and read the smallest line you can, alright?" He tried to nod, which predictably failed to work.

"Alright." There was a white board clearly visible in front of him. "E, M, Three, I, Five and a backwards E."

Third line down, that was probably normal.

"Alright. Now tell me if this is better? Or worse?" Something flicked off to the side and came back, blurring everything.

"Worse." He didn't expect them to find anything, he could see just fine after all.

"How about now?" The same thing flickered, though this time everything looked different.

"About the same. Maybe a little worse?" He couldn't be sure, had the E become a B?

"Alright, definitely not myopia. We're going to try going in the opposite direction. Just tell me if things get better or worse." The lenses flickered away, Spike knew there wouldn't be anything to find as new ones slid into place.

"...Better."

Author's Notes:

Eh, pure slice of life revolving around one of Spike's weaknesses and something I'd noticed across a few episodes.