The front bell over the Ponyville clinic door jingled softly as you stepped inside, the familiar scent of herbal salves and freshly swept floors wrapping around you like an old quilt. It was warm here—gently lit, full of quiet hoofsteps and low conversation.

You’d only come by to drop off a basket of baked goods for the staff, but the moment you entered, you caught the sound of a very familiar voice drifting from just beyond the divider curtain

“…No, no, I was a wreck,” Doctor Stable was saying with a laugh in his voice—gentle and fond, not the usual clinical tone he used during appointments “Dropped all my charts, tripped over the waiting bench… I think I even tried to introduce myself twice.”

You paused, ears flicking forward

“I’d seen her around the market before,” he continued, his voice softer now, as though the memory itself slowed his breathing “But nothing prepares you for the day your heart decides, That’s the one. You don’t get a warning bell or a gentle nudge. You just look up one day and she’s smiling at you, and suddenly your heartbeat’s outpacing your cutie mark.”

The patient—a mare with a wrapped wing—giggled lightly “And she said yes to you even after all that?”

He chuckled, and you could almost hear the sheepishness in his voice “She did. Celestia knows why. But she did.”

You stepped around the corner just as he added “She’s the reason I still smile after long shifts. The reason the clinic feels like more than just a job.” Then his eyes lifted—and saw you

He froze for the smallest second, his cheeks instantly blooming a soft, rosy pink beneath his pale coat. His glasses slipped just a bit down his nose. But instead of stumbling or redirecting, his smile only grew

“There she is,” he said, standing up a little straighter “The best thing to ever happen to me.”

The patient blinked, grinning between the two of you now “She’s even prettier than your story made her sound.”

Doctor Stable glanced over at you with eyes full of nothing but warmth and pride. His tail flicked once, and without hesitation, he stepped forward, pressing a soft kiss to your cheek in front of everypony “Caught me,” he murmured with a chuckle “I was just bragging about my favorite mare.”

And in that quiet clinic, surrounded by charts and salves and the faint ticking of the wall clock, your world felt perfectly still—perfectly full. Like every heartbeat in that room knew exactly where it belonged