“Ach! Seien Sie sanft!” Beethoven yelled, the Appaloosa doctor immediately retracted his hoof away from his exposed stomach. The unicorn looked over to Princess Twilight in confusion.
“What he say?” he asked.
The alicorn held up the scroll over Ludwig’s face, “We didn’t get that, what did you say?”
“Don’t push on it so hard,” the giant complained before he covered his mouth, taking in deep breaths. Before anypony could ask what was wrong, Ludwig lurched to which Twilight immediately handed him a trashcan before he vomited.
“Oh Celestia,” the doctor said as he looked over his notes. “Let’s see… fever, nausea, has pain near his lower abdomen, vomiting, uncomfortable to walk around or to move… are you sure this was just from this mornin’?”
Twilight nodded, “He had a cold back in October, but I’ve never seen him like this. Do you know what might be wrong with him?”
“Ah wanna check one more thing,” he said as he opened a box of surgical needles. After picking one, he looked over to be sure that Beethoven was looking at the scroll. “Sir, Ah want ta draw a little bit of your blood. If Ah could see yer foreleg if you please, Ah’ll make this as quickly as possible so Ah can make mah diagnosis.”
Once this was accomplished, the doctor looked at the blood sample under a microscope and was running a spell all the while. “Yep, he may have a different body then us ponies, but Ah think Ah know what’s wrong.”
“Why?” Twilight asked, “What does he have?”
“Since his blood has a high content of white blood cells, and given all the symptoms, Ah concur that he has appendicitis. That means yer friend needs ta get to a real hospital immediately fer surgery. Since we haven’t exactly set one up here in Appaloosa, he hasta to either go to Applewood or Ponyville to get ‘em treated. The sooner we get him over there, the less likely that it would rapture, and if it does, then he’s in serious trouble.”
“Good Celestia,” Twilight sighed as she went over to the old man. “Ludwig, we need to get you to Ponyville right now. I’ll get your things and send a telegram to the doctors in Ponyville that you need to undergo surgery.”
“Surgery?” Beethoven repeated and Twilight nodded, “Hundesohn!” he said before he lost his entire breakfast in a trashcan.
“In the meantime,” the doctor added, “Try ta make sure that he lays down on the way there. Ah know the railroad isn’t exactly smooth, but Ah would recommend that shouldn’t try move around as much as possible.”
“Oh süßer Jesus, ich werde sowieso sterben.” Ludwig muttered, “You said surgery? They’re going to cut me up?”
“Yer appendix needs ta be removed as soon as possible. But don’t worry any, Ah’ve heard good things comin’ from the surgeons in Ponyville. It’s one of the most common and safest procedures out there.”
At this, Beethoven laughed and both the doctor and Twilight wondered why he’s laughing. “In Europe, my people tried to avoid surgery if they can because doing so was deadly. Even from pulling teeth by careless doctors! You said so yourself Herr Doctor, you’ve n- owe! Never seen the likes of me, how do I know I won’t end up dead?”
“Well,” the Appaloosian unicorn replied, “in a proper hospital like the one in Ponyville, they have x-rays and scans in which doctors can look into yer body without physically opening it up. From there, they can make a plan of usin’ the techniques they know and accommodate it to yer unique body. But Ah think we’ve waited enough time, Y'all need to get on the earliest train arrivin’. Oh, one more thing, Ah think it would be a good idea that you go on a fast from here on out. So don’t eat but drink plenty of water before the surgery.”
_*_
“This is torture!” Ludwig complained. He was lying on the floor of a private car since the seating was far too small for him to lie down flat. However, with every jolt of the car, Beethoven’s insides moved around too, causing him more pain. “I won’t be surprised if I end up dead by the time we get to Ponyville.”
Twilight’s ears folded back. By now (and thanks to her for giving the engineer the order to go as fast as reasonably possible) they were headed their way back towards Ponyville where they expect a cart that will drop the composer to the hospital. Until then, even with her extended knowledge, she wasn’t exactly sure on what kind of spells to use to help ease Ludwig’s pain. After all, she may be a Princess and a Librarian, but she was by no means a doctor of medicine.
Her ears did perk up when she heard a knock on the door, it sided open in which she spotted Octavia and Vinyl, “Pardon us, Your Majesty,” the gray mare asked, “May we come in?”
“Just Twilight,” she corrected, “and yes you may, but watch out for Ludwig.”
The two mares carefully stepped around the giant so that they wouldn’t step on him. They sat on the other side from twilight’s seat.
“I’m going to go straight to the point,” Octavia says. “The orchestra is worried about Mr. Beethoven, and so are we. Is there something we could do?”
Twilight shook her head, “Until we get to Ponyville, there’s hardly anything anypony can do. He’s already in enough pain as it is without the train bumping on the tracks.”
Vinyl lit up her horn and pulled out a notepad in which she wrote down the following message:
Isn’t the big guy going to be okay?
“I… I hope so,” the lilac alicorn offered a reassuring smile, “Once we get into town and to the hospital for the doctors to perform the surgery, he should be alright.”
“But this train probably won’t be able to make it there until later tonight,” the Cellist pointed out. “Are you absolutely sure there’s not a thing any of us can do Princess? We could gather up some of the cushions from the train for him to lie down on.”
“What are the three of you talking about?” Beethoven moaned, “I hope you’re not plotting on throwing me off the train in this condition.”
Vinyl scratched down a quick message on her notepad.
No, we wanted to see how you’re doing; by the way, do you need anything?
“Unless you know how to relief the stones that are pulverizing my insides into soup, I don’t think there’s anything you can do,” there was another jerk from the train car to which Ludwig groaned. “I can’t believe it, I’m going to die.”
Wide-eyed, Octavia looked up at Twilight, “He can’t be surely!”
“From what the doctor back in Appaloosa has told me,” the Princess said, “since he felt the early signs this morning, he should be fine as soon as the surgeons in Ponyville do the surgery on him. I’ve already sent a telegram over to the hospital to give them a heads up as to what to expect.”
Another painful moan as Beethoven clenched his abdomen, “I’m going to die here. Far away from home with so much left unfinished. Dear God, I haven’t done nearly enough for the name of art.”
This comment surprised everypony in that car. Vinyl wrote down everyone’s thoughts.
Dude! What in Equestria are you talking about? You’ve written really good music, and coming from a mare that doesn’t listen to that much classical, that says a lot!
“Ah yes,” Ludwig said sarcastically, “Beethoven can write music, thank God, but he is completely useless on earth. I can’t eat, can’t sleep, can’t drink the pain away, can’t compose, can’t play, can’t hear and can’t sh-” another jolt from the tracks that made the giant hiss.
“Vinyl,” Octavia said, “Ask him if there’s something that we can do, does he need cushions to lie down on or what?”
The unicorn transcribed her roommate’s question onto the notepad and showed it to Ludwig.
“I’ll take anything just so I won’t have to hurt this much,” Beethoven told them. Sometime later, the two of them return with several dozens of seat cushions from the train in which they constructed a crude padded bed for the giant to lay on. With a little help from Twilight of lifting and placing him on the cushions before he added, “Thank you, is there any water?”
While Octavia left to fetch him, pitcher, to drink from, Vinyl stayed behind, writing something down on her notepad before tearing the yellow page out and gave it to him.
Don’t tell Octie I said this, but ever since you came here, you have been an influence in more ways than one. Before, I thought that Classical was for old ponies that were meant to help them fall asleep and that I knew what real music was. But when you came with your songs, you’ve made everypony, including me, looked at music in a whole new way. In other words, you made classical come alive. Like that last symphony, I heard a few days ago, that was incredible! I didn’t know anypony could write anything like that! You singlehoofenly turned the Music Industry on its head in ways nopony would expect. Plus, you were a badflank when you called out Prince Blueblood for what he was! That and you were able to win a battle of the bands with nothing but an orchestra and my equipment, who could have foreseen that? What I’m trying to say, is that Equestria needs this music, and we need you! Please, don’t die on us.
By the time Octavia came back with a pitcher of water, Beethoven gulp some down before facing the white unicorn, “I will not make any promises if I don’t know if I can keep.”
_*_
That evening, at the train station, a team of doctors and nurses were waiting next to a cart to carry the giant in. When the locomotive pulled up to the station, the doctors immediately sprang into action as they carried a larger-than-normal stretcher, “Where is Mr. Beethoven?” one of them asked the passengers before they were pointed to the car that the composer was in. With the help of Twilight, they lifted the old man onto the stretcher in order for him to be carried out onto the white cart.
“Use this to communicate with him,” the Princess gave one of them the magic scroll. “Remember, he’s deaf, so whatever you have to tell him, make sure he sees this before any of you talk.”
“Has he eaten anything along the way here?” another doctor inquired. Twilight filled in the doctor’s quick questions before they loaded him into the cart - not taking notice of a darting shadow that went underneath. Satisfied with the answers, the doctors now began their gallop towards the hospital while two sat beside Beethoven: one of them to ring the bell to get other ponies out of the way, while the other sat next to the giant.
After unrolling the scroll and holding it over Beethoven’s face, he tells him, “Don’t worry sir, once we get a few scans from you, we’ll be sure to get to work immediately to remove your appendix. Of course, we’ll be using some anesthetic to put you under. We’ll be measuring your vital signs all the while when an anesthesiologist looks over you to see that you won’t feel any pain when this is through. Now, before we get to the operation, we’ll have you know that we’ll make a very small incision to where the appendix is located so we can remove it and stitch you back up. Although, since this will be the first surgery where we’ll be doing it on a human, we’re going to have you stay at the hospital for a while until we see you fit enough to leave. Any questions?”
Beethoven blinked, “I’m the first human to be performed surgery on?” the doctor by his side nodded, “Then what are my chances of living?”