//------------------------------// // Chapter thirty one, All Good Things: Patience. // Story: Airship Mauled // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Dr. Zen Bones, medical tent- The fighting was over and after that horrid sickening display the mayor and her wee one put on with those four cupcakes. It was very much warranted after what they were put through. I just finished checking one of the mayor’s daughters, her biological kitten. I had a prognosis for a lot of the people here from Airship Mauled and it was looking pretty promising, every injured being from Airship Mauled would make a full recovery. Fortitude is completely unharmed and not exhausted, this was not to my surprise even if the yak was the most heavily attacked during the whole thing. I was told Fortitude could take a beating without even knowing he’s supposed to be injured by it. It checks out, he doesn’t even have mild exhaustion and was as healthy as he could possibly get. Yak strong indeed. Next was Cheerilee. Also in a healthy condition, she was never hurt and she was a mildly exhausted. She did a good job as my assistant nurse, even when it came to Jacky’s rather bloody and problematic emergency surgery. I was decently exhausted, but I’ve been checking every pony that’s been knocked out and we didn’t have any complications during combat aside from Ms. Chickadee. Keeping her alive was a constant effort in futility to keep her in good health, but I was willing to make that effort. Though I’ve never seen someone so cursedly unlucky of likes of Jacky before, it was a constant migraine headache dealing with her personally as a doctor! Flamberge only had moderate bruising and exhaustion. He was a dragon, so he’d be perfectly fine. Dragons were used to surviving incredibly bad injuries, but sicknesses and or diseases were a more rampant problem in the dragon lands though. Gene Eric was heavily bruised, exhausted and had numerous minor abrasions and cuts. The thing is though, he didn’t show just how exhausted he was. He hid it pretty well, but the griffon really needed to rest. From what I’ve been told about Jaded, she has a habit of getting seriously injured in adventures. Didn’t seem like she did, she was only moderately injured. Jaded had still bleeding cuts in various places on her body that needed disinfectant and bandaging when I got to her, she was badly bruised in some nasty places and she was a little bit beyond the exhaustion range that would have led to her collapsing. I could now believe everyone that Jaded La Perm, the mayor’s somewhat quirky daughter, had a high tolerance for most kinds of physical or even possibly magical trauma. Otherwise she should be sleeping or unconscious right about now. You know, instead of performing some of the most horrifying, but surprisingly completely bloodless, interrogation techniques on the pony that did all this. Fizzlepop Berrytwist La Perm was an interesting one, especially for being in love with someone that should be her sister. I don’t disparage such things if they are not of blood, but it’s still a bit odd to me that the unicorn pony is that open to snuggling with a Chimera and an Abyssinian while she sleeps. Fizzle's front right leg was cleanly snapped in three places. Nasty injury that, but it easily fixable and there thankfully weren’t shards of bone everywhere in her leg. She had some minor internal bleeding which didn’t require surgery, but I would watch it all the same to see whether or not her body could take care of the problem on its own. She also had exhaustion and bruising on a near even level compared to Jade’s injuries, being one of the ones near the cannonball firing machine that wasn’t a surprise. Fizzle would physically be fine, though I did have an issue with Fizzle’s current psychological state. I wasn’t exactly an expert in mental health, but I’m quite sure Fizzle needed a lot more reassurance that she was loved and cared for. I mentally noted that Kurilian doted heavily on both the filly and chick she adopted. If that wasn’t enough reassurance for the daft broken horned unicorn that she was part of that family, then I don’t know what was! Moving on to Mayor Kurilian La Perm, she had rope burns and bad bruising around her ankles and wrists. She was vaguely exhausted, but she wasn’t that much hurt beyond that. Bloody Maries the chimera, severe injuries to their sides from whipping attacks which might require minor surgery, several bite injuries from a manticore, various claws wounds from again the manticore and a two headed wolf, moderate exhaustion and heavy amounts of bruising. I would have to run a dental check on Mara’s two large fangs a little later as it isn’t an immediate concern, Maria’s bladed horns could grow back so that was less of an issue. Despite all of that, Maries were doing really well for the number of injuries they have. I was going to write a thesis on chimera and how sturdy their multiple species biology was. There was one really odd medical quirk about them, Maria could now breathe fire and apparently their father’s dragon genetics finally kicked in when she incidentally swallowed some of Flamberge’s flames. While it didn’t make much sense that Maria was now a fire breathing goat head, it happened and I just threw my paws up in exasperation. Now I had another thing to keep up with in Maries’ medical history and their medical history was a little mind bending. I warned them to not accidentally light themselves on fire. Unlike dragons, they weren’t immune to lava or their own fire, though they could possibly be highly resilient to it. Reminding myself that every chimera was different and would absolutely require a doctor specialized in learning their needs, I was quickly becoming that doctor for Maries. Elysium help me if I had to deal with two chimera or even chimera that were not of Maries’ family! You wouldn’t even know Maries even had dragon genetics in them, because who would think they did with a mountain goat, a sabre tiger and an oddly poisonous green snake? Next were the worst cases I had to deal with currently, Arizona, Velvet and of course Jacky ‘Blackcap’ Chickadee La Perm. If I remember right, Blackcap was a term for a pirate so badly cursed that standing next to them was considered an exceedingly dangerous life threatening occupational hazard. Unfortunately for me, some idiot had to interrupt me when I was going for a second, more in depth, checkup into Velvet’s condition. “Excuse me, I’m Doctor House Call. This group over here looks like it could use a doctor.” Now don’t get me wrong, he couldn’t have possibly known I was a fully accredited doctor. Still the assumption that I wasn’t doing my job made me angry, I spent years in medical school being held back because of what I was and I wasn’t about to let this slide now that I was allowed to fully practice my medical expertise. “I am a doctor.” Hear the sourness and bluntness in my tone you blithering idiot! “Oh, a medical school…” This House Call unicorn pony had pale red fur and dark brown hair, he looked like someone who was smug and had his head right up there in his arse. Some, but not all unicorns tended to be like this. “A fully accredited and licensed doctor, passed my medical exams with flying colors. I was about to check on one of my more troubling patients before you interrupted me.” My anger was building, he seemed surprised that a diamond dog would even be a doctor. I knew what I’m good at, and that’s helping others get better. I will not let him question me as a professional medical caregiver! Thankfully none of my patients were in critical conditions. “Do you think I’m playing being a doctor here?!” “Is there a problem here Dr. Bones?” The princess of love was an alright lass in my book, Cadence was sweet and I was okay with her assistance. Having Cadence scan my patient’s internals was quite useful. She, like everyone else, was a little green from watching the ongoing interrogation and volunteered to help me with my town’s people. “Nothing that I can’t solve given time Cadence, and a wrestling ring to sort out this empty headed horn swinger.” The idiot seemed to be upset with me, well good on him if he can actually pass a test I’ll give him to see if he can actually do anything helpful. “Doubt he’d like having all his legs dislocated, but he’s a doctor and I’m sure he’ll be able to get them back in without too much trouble with all the horn waggling unicorns tend to do.” House Call was definitely going to be nosy and he was definitely one of those ponies that would question a diamond dog in the medical field, not that he didn’t have the right to test another doctor. In this case he was doing it entirely out of preconceived notions about my species as a whole, which is why I didn’t like the racist bigot already. “Wait, she’s actually a doctor and not a nurse or a medical school practitioner princess?” Dr. House seemed a little confused, but he was still bowing to Cadence. I didn’t see a reason to bow, not unless it was important to preventing a war. Otherwise I could care less about what she is, especially if she doesn’t have a serious medical problem that I needed to check on this instant. “Yes, Dr. Bones is really quite good at her job.” Praise from a princess was nice, but it didn’t let me get back to my patients faster. “Now if the both of you are quite finished, I need to check on my more problematic patients!” I don’t think these ponies have some of the same senses that a diamond dog did. Senses that were very useful in a medical field. “I would like to… assist you.” House didn’t seem to believe me to be any good at my profession, but that was on him. “You’re not touching any of my patients, I know them all better than you would and I don’t trust you to understand some of the finer nuances of what I have to deal with here.” I stated as I moved over to Velvet, the poor reindeer was burning up. I doubt a unicorn scanning her would pick up on the problem, which is why I chose to approach her with this doctor following me. “I’m quite specialized in multiple species care, I doubt you’d be of any real help here.” “Oh really, try me!” House issued his challenge like I thought he would, quite a brainless dolt even if he was a medical professional. Cadence followed behind us to make sure he didn’t try anything or that I didn’t make good on my promise to violently dislocate most of his limbs. Don’t think I wouldn’t carry that action out or bill him for helping put the limbs back into place, I knew my rights as a full Equestrian citizen. “Okay, scan this deer and tell me what’s wrong with her.” I know exactly what a medical unicorns scan does, it would likely come up with nothing aside from claw wounds and exhaustion both physical and magical. He would miss all the other problems Velvet was currently having if he didn’t look closely at her personally, then I’d have him over a barrel. “Several light animal claw based injuries, physical exhaustion. Nothing else seems to be wrong with her.” Not even magical exhaustion? Some doctor you were Mr. Call. “He’s definitely not allowed to touch any of the patients from my town Cadence.” That statement from me made him look rather surprised. “What?” You simply weren’t a good doctor Mr. Call. “Why not!” “You didn’t even look at your patient in depth, all you did was scan her.” I pointed out lazily. “So? There’s nothing wrong with her in comparison to a pony.” That, House Call, is exactly why I’m dropping the mister from your name now. “That’s where you’re wrong, she’s not a pony and to compare her to such is to miss any major problems with her health.” I turned away from him and to the nutritional expert of Airship Mauled. “Mayor Kurilian, can you come over here please to corroborate something with me?” “Of course, is there something wrong Dr. Bones?” Bless her heart, for Kuril was a friendly and loving individual. One that you should never cross or she’ll do that witch thing that she and her daughter did with those cupcakes. “Can you tell this doctor exactly what Velvet is?” My words might sound biting, but they were warranted. “I need you to explain it to him as if he were a wee little foal.” “Okay, now this here is a very special ice reindeer, she’s from a clan of ice shaping reindeer and she’s very magical.” Ah yes Kuril, that’s the kind of condescending tone I was looking for and she even patted him on the head like he was a foal. I really liked this cat. “She’s also very friendly, just don’t mess with what she calls her floof.” “Stop that, I am a doctor and I will not be treated this way!” It was very apparent that House wasn’t paying attention. “A doctor that missed something being horribly wrong with the patient? Some doctor, let me give you my diagnosis of her situation.” Since you weren’t getting it quite yet and I tried to have Kuril dumb it down for you. Telling you outright should make you feel like a heel. “Please do, I’m curious as to what I’m missing here.” He didn’t sound very curious, just upset that he wasn’t being taken seriously and his orange eyes were narrowed at me. “Okay, first of all, you didn’t pay attention to what Kuril just called her. She’s a reindeer, but not just any kind of reindeer! She’s specifically an ice shaper reindeer.” I knew he wouldn’t see the importance in this. I looked down at a sleeping Velvet laying there sweating a bit and her face was red. She was stable at the moment, but it must feel pretty bad to be her right now. “Tell me, what’s her body temperature currently at?” “It’s around one hundred degrees, well within reasonable limits for the body temperature of most deer. Aside from her injuries and exhaustion I don’t see much wrong with her.” He now seemed unsure of something. “Why did you even bother asking about her temperature at all?” “Her species of reindeer have a normal body temperature of around fifty to seventy degrees in range, right now she’s running a high fever and her heavy magical exhaustion is compounding her issues.” There was a long pause as he stared at me, then House's eyes widened in horror as he realized what I just said. “Magic scans don’t catch everything wrong with a patient.” “…” The unicorn immediately did another scan and actually checked Velvet's body over, then he backed away looking haunted. “What… that can’t be right!” “Basically, you’re an idiot.” I stated blithely. “Leave the work to the professional who currently knows what she's dealing with. I have a chimera as one of my patients and their biology is quite queer; when their dragon genetics came into account out of a tiger, snake and goat, it's oddly the goat that gained fire breathing abilities.”