Helping a friend.

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This came out of nowhere and took up a chapter haha! but i don't regret it. now only two or three chapters until some action... probably. We'll look forward to it haha!. Hope you like it and like always EEEENJOY!

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"BARK!"

Starfall involuntarily flinched, as the young adult mare, wrapped in a white straitjacket restricting her movement, literally barked at him like a dog she apparently believed herself to be.

He instantly noticed the uncanny resemblance between the two sisters, the only thing distinctive between them being Screwy's unkempt mane and a screw Cutie Mark in place of Shoeshine's Long, brushed well groomed mane and a Cutie Mark of two entwined together lucky horseshoes...plus Screwy's rather obvious lack of sanity.

He could see Shoeshine's heart break the more she looked at her sister, but he could also see Screwy's feelings for her Twin showing, despite her more than prevalent Dog-like behaviour.

In the short while he observed the unfortunate mare, he could see that she tried to care for Shoeshine in her own, even if not exactly sane, doggy way, for example by barking at the unknown Stallion that approached her... and acting more compliantly when being by her Sister's side.

"Can you help her?..." Shoeshine asked hopefully as she gently stroked the head of her silently growling sister, trying to calm her down.

Starfall kneeled in front of the sick mare that let out a small bark but didn't so much as moved, being properly held by Shoeshine.

He looked at the other mare and sighed.

"I won't be able to tell untill I try. Though if she's really as bad as she looks, I'd have to get some things from my house." He explained, casting a light, calming spell through his horn and touching Screwy's forehead, causing her growling to subside.

He didn't remove his horn though, and continued casting further spells, his knowledge in magic concerning the mind aiding him in finding the source of her current predicament.

"That's... Her memories were indeed scrambled..." He muttered in slight surprise, his eyes closed in deep focus, still looking for the reason...

"Is there anything you can do?" Shoeshine asked pleadingly and Starfall didn't answer at first.

"From what I can say some of her memories influencing personality got mixed with her memories of a dog. I assume you two had one, right?" He asked and Shoeshine nodded, before realising Starfall couldn't see her so she said out loud.

"Yes. We had a dog in our childhood. Though she had been gone since...well...the accident." She said a bit mournfully, while Screwy squealed sadly.

"I see..." Starfall nodded still focused on his work, but then something surprised him.

"Could you tell me what is Screwy's talent exactly?" He asked and Shoeshine got puzzled but still replied.

"Well, she was extremely good at hoofywork, Always dreaming of doing something related to woodwork actually. She was also excited in helping me in my horseshoe business, because she enjoyed installing my products. Maybe you'd be interested in getting yourself a set of Horseshoes my Prince? They're great for keeping your hooves from damage and I guarantee you the best quality!" Shoeshine said excitedly before blushing at her small outburst.

Starfall chuckled and thanked Shoeshine for her offer, but internally he was mostly focused on what he just learned from his scans.

Somehow, the Cutie Mark of Screwy formed a very thin connection to her mind, which minutely slowed down her mental healing, or at least slightly influenced her to keep her "Screwed in the head" behaviour. She was still going to recover with time, but instead of her healing taking a few months, maybe a year or two... she was already in this state for at least that much and still needed at least a year or two more before recovering completely.

Now he was really curious what happened to the mare to end up in such a state, but his leading theory was that the trauma of whatever happened influenced her magic and pushed her Cutie Mark to act incorrectly, while still in the scope of what it technically signified.

It was an interesting discovery, because if that was the case, it meant Cutie Marks could be pushed to change their effects as long as the new effect could still be an interpretation of a given Mark...

He decided to leave this discovery for later though, and decided to do something with the current problem by simply dissipating the harmful magical connection.

It needed a lot of precision not to hurt Screwy, and would have been almost impossible to discover and accomplish without his Mage Sight, but with the right amount of magic control and fair amount of magic, Starfall accomplished his task and retracted his horn from the forehead of the unfortunate mare.

"What did you do?! Did you help her!? Is she going to be alright?!" Shoeshine instantly asked multiple questions in rapid succession, but Starfall stood up and put his hoof on her shoulder.

"Calm down please. Screwy would have been fine even without me. It might have taken a few years but she'd have recovered on her own with time. What I did though should shorten that time to a few months. I can still do more but I think we should let her rest a bit before we continue furth-*OOMPH*" Starfall grunted in surprise when Shoeshine engulfed him in a bone crushing hug, showing off her earth pony strength.

Suffice to say she was grateful...

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It was about three days later, and a few sessions of mental reconstruction with the help of his favourite mind artifact, that Starfall finally succeeded in more or less rebuilding the mind scape of the crazy Dog-mare Screwy, who had been kept sedated during every procedure and the time Inbetween for safety reasons.

When Shoeshine heard her name being the first thing that left the muzzle of Screwy upon her eventual awakening, she instantly engulfed her sister in an extremely tight embrace, which made Starfall worry for Screwy's poor ribs. Both their eyes left trails of tears while happy sobs mixed with different synonyms of "Sister!" were only part of what left their lips as the two sisters indulged in their tearful reunion.

Even Starfall teared up seeing the scene, not unlike a small group of mares currently looking through the crack in the doors, standing one over the other and trying to see what was happening.

Starfall did not regret wasting a few hours of these last few days to help his friend. Everything was worth it, if just to see this scene.

he took a glance at the girls trying not to interrupt the scene while still attempting to take a peak, and he couldn't help but smile in amusement.

He could see Twilight, Pinkie, Meena Fluttershy and Rarity. But also Rainbow Dash with her wing back to full health, and Applejack with a small medal on her chest signifying her win in the rodeo, which went against the original plot where she got second place and got depressed.

He had already realised that those two events didn't happen at the same time in the show, so going by logic, Rainbow Dash must have had accident at a different date than it was In canon. He probably shouldn't even consider it the same accident despite all the similarities that originally led him to make the comparison...

He shuffled that thought for later though, having been suddenly engulfed in yet another crushing hug by the light blue mare that continued to thank him for his help in healing her sister, soon followed by a similar hug from Screwy who finally understood that the Stallion her sister hugged was the one to heal her from her predicament.

They spend a while with the two Twins trying to show their appreciation, Shoeshine even hinting to a threesome somewhere further down the line, but Starfall was simply happy in helping out and wasn't going to agree to that threesome no matter how tempting the offer was for him. In the end he already had two pairs of tweens he could ask for the same, and he didn't want to use Shoeshine's gratefulness for him on sex, even if the Maree was willing. He did it out of the kindness of his heart, and in hope of helping a friend and that was all there was to it...

Though the teasing he received from the spying girls later that day had been quite intensive...

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"Thank you once again Starfall. I...I can't even describe how grateful I am..." Shoeshine said a few days later when he came for a visit to see how Screwy was doing.

"I told you Shine, I'm happy to help, it's really no problem." He reassured her as they stood in the doors of the hospital room, Screwy having been moved to a normal bed after her mind recovered. She was still receiving therapy, since some things her mind needed to heal on its own accord, but at the way she was going, she might actually get out of here in a few weeks.

His gaze went to the other twin who laid in her bed wearing a hospital gown and reading a book, her hair neatly groomed and her expression peaceful. she must have felt his gaze on her as she looked up, and seeing him look at her, smiled gratefully and waved.

"Nevertheless I'm still grateful. If you ever need anything, don't hesitate to ask us. We'll do our best to be of assistance. I'll be seeing you." Shoeshine said, affectionately caressing his arm, before turning around and walking back into her sisters room.

Starfall noticed her tail swing around and tease him, the mare clearly hoping he acted on her silent offer... Had he had any less Marefriends, he might have even done that...

But he was not going to act on it until he got a green light from his girls, and he wasn't going to ask them anyway, since taking care of over ten Marefriends was already quite tough...

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