I immediately put the drawing carefully back in the box -- it now meant as much to me as it had to Derpy, and I wanted to take no chances in anything happening to it. I actually considered laminating it later, which isn’t such a bad idea...unless I decide to frame it instead. Unfortunately, it was already long past visiting hours at the hospital, but since Derpy was only admitted there around an hour ago now, so there was the possibility of an exception. I also wanted to see if I was even close with my diagnosis, though Derpy was obviously the higher priority. I picked up the shoebox and carefully made my way out of Derpy’s house, doing my best to avoid the muffins on the floor. Fortunately, once I made it through, I was able to say that no muffins were harmed during the writing of this story...well, so far at least.

After I left, I locked the door again behind me, but I kept the one spare spare key I had -- I had a feeling that I was going to need it. I start heading back toward the hospital, and upon arriving there I find that my friends had already left; I guess it was officially past visiting hours after all. Surprisingly, as I start to turn to leave I hear somepony calling for me. I turn back around and find that it was the doctor that I had talked to when I had checked Derpy in. I made my way over to him.

“I was wondering if you were going to come back!” said the medical pony, who had introduced himself to me earlier as Dr. Julian*.

“Derpy had had me go do something for her, but I decided to check back anyway.”

“Yes, she had made that...quite clear, to say the least.” the doctor said with a laugh. “Would you like to come inside? I have some more things to tell you.”

“I’ll be able to see Derpy, yes?”

“That was actually one of them.”

“Sounds like a plan, then.”

The doctor laughs again as I follow him inside. I find the hospital to be completely empty, save for staff and patients. Thus, the waiting room was emptier than the rest of town during one of Pinkie Pie’s parties, so we sat down in there. Once we got comfortable, the doctor started to speak.

“First things first, I would like to thank you.”

I raised a puzzled eyebrow. “For what exactly?”

“Let me explain, then. First off, your ‘diagnosis’ was absolutely spot-on. Now, the reason why I’m thanking you is because if you hadn’t arrived with that conclusion, there’s a high chance that that injury would have gotten much worse, as that’s usually one of the last things we test for. However, because of your speculation, we tested it first. Honestly, I can say with utmost confidence that Derpy owes her entire wing to you; she may have needed to have it amputated.”

My eyes widened at the sound of that last word, but the more I thought about it, the more it made complete sense: such an injury, if left untreated for an extended period of time, could lead to an infection, and -- considering that the injury is in such a crucial area in regard to the wing’s overall function and structure, an infection there could compromise the entire wing, and leaving the wing attached would only make the infection worse, giving the doctors no choice other than to amputate the wing.

“How much of the main structure of the bone is still intact?”

“The majority of it actually; the bone damage was only a couple shards chipped off from the side, but those shards were lodged in the nerve, just as you speculated.”

“The Schadenfreude nerve?”

The doctor nods.

I continue, “And I’m guessing that the shards are positioned with one point in the nerve and the other in the bone, so that every time the outside area of the wing is touched, the shard is nudged further into the nerve, which would explain the immense pain that Derpy had been having?”

The doctor laughs. “You’re good at this, aren’t you? You’re making my job seem like it’s nothing!”

“Well, my dad was a doctor.*”

“Ah, well that explains quite a bit, then.” he replies as he starts to get up. “Would you like see Derpy now?”

I grin wider than I have in a long while. “Absolutely!” I take a moment to think, then add, “Wait...is she awake?”

The doctor laughs again, “Last time I was in her room she was refusing to go to sleep.”

“I have a feeling that I may know why...”

The doctor smiles, and starts walking, and I follow him. After a few minutes we arrive at a room, which the doctor opens for me. Before I go in, he says quietly so only I can hear, “I’ll let you two be alone, and I’ll make sure that the rest of the staff does the same. She doesn’t need any further treatment, other than letting the wound heal in time, so the only thing the nurses would have had to do was check in on her every now and then. But I’m sure you can do that, especially since you more-or-less did my job for me.”

I respond, flattered, just as quietly, “Thank you so much Dr. Julian.”

He smiles. “It’s the least I could do.”

I walk in and the doctor closes the door behind me. After a couple more steps I find that Derpy is awake, and watching television -- SportsCenter, to be exact, which was currently showing some of the top highlights from the recently-completed NELL (National Equestrian Longball League) season**.

“You’re finally back...” Derpy said with a soft smile once she saw me.

I smiled back, but didn’t yet speak, instead walking over toward her side and giving her a plastic bag that I had taken out of the shoebox, which contained one of the chocolate muffins from her house, which I had sneakily taken off of her counter. When I gave it to her, I saw a small tear run down her face.

“That better be a tear of joy.” I said as I sit down in the chair next to her bed.

Derpy turns and looks at me. “Well...that depends...” the bedridden mare says with a blush.

I make certain she can see my half-smile before I reply “So...this isn’t a bad time to ask you out to dinner, then?”

Immediately, Derpy tried to jump out of her bed, forcing an instinctive reaction from me, as I catch her with one hoof on her chest and the other on her folded left wing, then lowered her slowly back to her original position.

“Woah there! Down Derpy, down! Take it easy!”

Once I lay her back down, she looks at me, and the sparkle I see in them tells me all I need to know.

I wonder how long Derpy has been waiting for that kiss...

*This is actually an allusion to my dad. My last name in real life is Julian, and my dad is a doctor of internal medicine; thus, he is Dr. Julian.

**This is an allusion to a story here on FIMFiction that all of you should check out. A further description is included at the top of Chapter I.
Link: NELL: The Start of Longball