//------------------------------// // Ch. 3 Deja Vu // Story: Dash of Humanity 3: Live, Fly, Reboot. // by Kaidan //------------------------------// Come on everypony smile, smile, smile Fill my heart up with sunshine, sunshine I rolled over and reached a hoof out to turn off the alarm, hitting it on the second try. My dream, whatever it had been, faded from memory quickly as my eyes adjusted to the morning sun. Once I was ready to get out of bed I began my morning routine. Yesterday I had some apple cinnamon oatmeal, but today I was in the mood for something a bit more exciting. I opened the fridge to look for some eggs and bacon, and found that sadly I was out of both. Real bacon was hard to come by and too much could cause indigestion, but after yesterday it would have been nice to have some anyway. Next I checked the coffee container to make some coffee, finding it empty as well. It was shaping up to be one of those days already. The food in the rest of the fridge and pantry was scarce, I’d have to run out and buy some groceries if I wanted to have something more exciting than oatmeal tomorrow. It looked like for now, I had to eat another bowl of steel rolled oats with Sweet Apple Acres apples. As I thought about it, I could think of worse fates than having to eat oatmeal two days in a row. By the time my morning routine was done, I headed upstairs to brush my mane. My medical saddlebags were still by the standing mirror. They were a bit heavier, but after yesterday, I felt like carrying them around with me just in case. The bags were emblazoned with the red plus symbol to let ponies know I was a medic. I’d have to ask sometime if it was considered a war crime in Equestria to attack a medic, not that I had any intention of holding still to find out the next time some villain was blowing up the town. I hovered above the street today as I greeted Minuette. “Good morning.” “Good morning, Dawn.” She waved back and resumed checking her mail. As I went down the street I heard a familiar voice shout out. “Looks like somepony has a case of the Mondays.” I tilted my head before landing and running a hoof through my mane. “First off, it’s Tuesday, and second off, I actually fixed all the cow licks in my mane today…” Rose chuckled. “Must have it bad if you can’t remember what day of the week it is. Were you up late having a little fun? With Dash out of town too.” She tapped her chin. “Oh, I wonder if it was Lyra or Fluttershy keeping you up?” “Both. And Cranky. I promised Fluttershy I'd show her what a donkey show was.” I lined my wings up and pushed a hoof through them to simulate. She blushed for a moment before thinking of a reply. “You sure you weren’t a sailor in your other life?” I shrugged and decided not to make any further remarks before I upset her. Most ponies had accepted I was a smart ass, in the same way we all accepted Pinkie had some sort of bottomless bag of holding in her mane. However, I tried not to abuse the responsibility that came with this great power. Today I decided not to walk into town, taking to the air instead. As I gained altitude to fly over the construction site, I looked down to notice with some surprise they’d resumed construction. I thought for sure they’d at least wait for the body to get cold first, maybe do some safety training, or recheck their ropes. There was a loud crash, noticed in my peripheral vision, and I swooped down amid several shouts of shock from nearby ponies. I landed next to a wooden beam, pinning a stallion with a rather generic shade of brown fur. I blinked twice as two earth ponies moved to lift the beam, and looked straight at the shocked foreman. “Are you bucking kidding me? Again?!” Before he could reply I rushed over to help the pony. I was angry enough not to notice the nagging sense of deja vu as I checked the pony's vitals. Weak, thready, shallow breathing, and then no heartbeat, no breathing… Something about the symptoms seemed so familiar. I should be starting chest compressions, but my mind was racing. Blunt force trauma to the chest, the heartbeat fading out in less than a minute. As the rational side of me outpaced my anger, I suddenly realized what I had to do. “Flitter,” I shot a hoof to the side without looking. “Hospital, trauma team, now!” I was already pulling the medical supplies out of my saddlebag before Flitter replied and took off. This pony had fluid building up around the heart, and I knew I had to fix it fast, but wasn’t sure which needle to use. I opted to go large, pulling out the fourteen gauge IV needle. I lined it up where Doctor Stable had shown me yesterday. “Celestia, I hope I’m right about this.” The needle slid in easily; every pony seemed to be holding their breath. I went slow until straw-colored plasma tinged with blood began to flow out of the needle. I pushed the catheter in and removed the needle, watching as the fluid buildup was quickly relieved. My hoof rested against his neck and I waited to see if I’d just saved or killed somepony. After counting to ten I felt it, the heartbeat had returned and was getting stronger. The pony gasped. I turned to the two Earth ponies nearest me, “Hold him down gently, if he panics before I tape this down he could knock it loose.” I grabbed some tape and began securing the small plastic catheter that was allowing his pericardial sac to drain. By the time I was done, Nurse Redheart and the trauma team had arrived. She came up and took a look at the large wood beam, the severed rope, and a rather confused and sore earth pony. “Dawn?” she asked. I had been just staring at the pony trying to process what just happened. “Oh?” I turned to the nurse. “Uh, he had a cardiac tamponade. I was able to relieve it.” Redheart raised an eyebrow, looking at the supplies I’d laid out on the ground. “You diagnosed that without listening with a stethoscope, and minimal training on pony anatomy? That’s quite impressive. You’d make a good Doctor.” I chuckled. “Doctor Stables said the same yesterday, but I just got lucky. Better get him back to the hospital.” She nodded. “Feel free to stop by later, I’m sure the staff and this pony would love to congratulate you.” The earth pony was on the litter now, and being carried off towards the hospital. He’d need to be seen by a doctor and probably go into surgery or have some magic used to properly fix his injury. My anger returned and I caught sight of the pony who had let two ponies get injured in as many days. I got up and marched over to the Foreman, stabbing a hoof into his chest. “What the hell is your major malfunction?” I screamed. “Twice in two days, broken ropes, crushing workers?” “What?” The Foreman stuttered. “We haven’t had an accident in sixty days, and it was a splinter—” “Splinter? You killed a pony yesterday and almost another one today! Were you born a fat, slimy, scumbag puke piece of crap? Or did you have to work on it?” I asked as I took a step forward into his face. He looked around nervously until one of the older stallions stepped up and put a hoof on my shoulder. “Don’t do something stupid, son. Knocking his head off won’t fix anything.” I looked at the gray stallion and felt my rage fading. After all, I’d saved the injured pony's life. “Fine. I’ll be at the hospital, and Princess Celestia is going to hear about this.” My saddlebag was still on the ground and I quickly scooped the medical supplies back into it. Before anypony else could drop a wooden beam on somepony, I took off towards the hospital. There was something a bit familiar about the hospital today. The chair dug into my flank in the same spot, causing a leg to fall asleep. The bag of cookies in the vending machine almost got snagged on the same hook. It was nagging at me as I waited for an update on the patient I’d helped out earlier. I didn’t have to wait as long as yesterday though. Doctor Stable walked out, immediately smiling and hurrying over to me. “Dawn Seeker! Hero of the day, how does it feel?” My spirits lifted as I grinned. “I take it he’s stable then?” “Yes. It’s not often a pony places a shunt in the field, much less diagnoses a condition like that on sight. I’m seriously impressed.” He pointed a hoof to my cutie mark. It was a medical caduceus—two serpents spiraled around a staff, with a pair of wings at the top—on a rising sun. “You’ve got a talent for this. I know I’ve said it before, but—” “You’d like to hire me full time, or sponsor me for medical school in Equestria?” I finished for him. He chuckled. “Do I say it that often?” “It’s more like this really weird sense of deja vu today. If you hadn’t shown me yesterday where to place the needle for a cardiac tamponade, I wouldn’t have known how. Then today another pony got hit in the exact same way at the same spot. What are the odds?” Stable looked confused. “We didn’t chat yesterday, nor did I advise you on how to do such a procedure. You shouldn’t perform any interventions you’re not trained in.” “Huh? Yeah we did.” I rubbed a hoof in my mane. Yesterday and today had been a blur, but I was certain we’d had that talk. “I mean, I know things can get really weird around here on Tuesdays, but I’m pretty sure you taught me that yesterday.” “It’s Monday, Dawn.” Stable frowned for a moment. “Do you know where you are?” I glared at him. “Really? You’re going to check if I’m alert and oriented? I haven’t hit my head lately that I can recall. Of course, that’s exactly what I’d say if I was trying to hide a concussion so…” Stable had a light out and was shining it into my eyes before I could protest, seemingly content at how my pupils reacted. “Hmm, well you look fine. I’d appreciate it if you are a little more cautious in the future though. You got a lucky diagnosis, but could have hurt the pony if you were wrong.” “Come on, I was sitting right here when you showed me what to do.” I tapped a hoof against my ribs. “If you’re saying that didn’t happen, then how did I know that?” He thought for a minute. I could tell he was searching for a logical explanation; we’d been friends long enough that he knew I wouldn’t joke when it came to medicine. “Hmm, you should ask Twilight if anything odd is going on. Usually she’s behind, or aware of, such things.” I sighed. “She’s out of town on a friendship emergency. I think this is a little above my pay grade too. Maybe I’ll send Celestia a letter to be safe, but I would rather not spend my day trying to chase down the reason I seem to be the only pony who remembers yesterday. That’s a princess problem.” “Fair enough. Take it easy, Dawn, and again, excellent work. Just be more careful in the future.” As I walked away I looked back. “Kind of sending a mixed message there, Doc. I’ll just keep doing what’s best for the patient. It’s worked out fine so far.” It didn’t take long to track Spike down; this late in the day he’d been out running some errands in town. We sent a quick letter to Celestia about how I seemed to have lost track of a whole day, and how it was her problem to figure it out. I was exhausted from having to scramble to try and help two ponies in as many days, and started to trudge towards the grocery store. Eventually I headed home carrying several bags worth of groceries. Fresh produce, coffee, cereal, eggs, bacon, the works. The only place in town that sold meat was the one hotel that catered to griffons, dragons, and other carnivorous races that were allied with ponies. The chef there was happy to help me out, mostly because they often had to throw out expired food. Not too many guests from other nations chose to visit Ponyville over the big cities like Canterlot and Manehatten. By the time I was home and ready for bed the sun was setting. I spread my wings to stretch, feeling out the air currents in the room and a strange static charge in the air. I’d been doing my best to learn about innate pegasus magic. As far as I could tell, there was a storm system forming in my bedroom with a sixty percent chance of rain. I looked around incredulously before climbing into bed to fall asleep. I must have been tired, because the next thing I knew I was waking up the next day.