//------------------------------// // Ain't That a Kick In the Head Pt 2 // Story: Fallout: Equestria - Lovely New Pegasus // by No one is home //------------------------------// Ain’t That a Kick In the Head Pt. 2 -=-=-=-=- “Well, you’re about about as strong and as tough as they come.  And for the amount of brain damage you just took on, you seem to have your head on pretty straight.” The doc chuckles, and I gotta chuckle with him.  “I wouldn’t go pushin’ my luck at the card table too much if I was you, though.  Any luck you had, I figure you’ve done used up, coming back from the grave.” “Well, you seem to have gotten your hooves under you, and all your vitals are in order.” The doc leads me into the next room.  Honestly, I want another go at the Vigortron.  I dunno, it just reminds me of being a colt again and Ma taking me the doctor when I broke my leg.  I idly wonder if I’m gonna get a lollipop out of this.  “Lets just head on over to the couch and make sure that bullet didn’t leave your brain nuttier than a bighorner pie.” And he leads me to a couch, and doctors have couch rooms for only one good reason.  And damn if I ain’t impressed with this town's health care.  Prewar they needed whole hospitals and teams of doctor ponies for this kind of thing.  The Doc’s right, I done spent every ounce of luck I had getting shot in the town with possibly the most over-qualified medical pony in the entire history of Equestria. “Just take seat.” I don’t mind if I do.  “I’m just going to ask you a few questions, just answer as truthfully as you know how.” As if I would do anything else.  “If you had to choose between loyalty to your home town and loyalty to ponykind, which would you choose, and why?” “That’s a tricky one, Doc.”  I wave a hoof because that communicates how seriously I take this.  “Your implying my home town acted against ponykind.  It ain’t betrayal if they betrayed me first. “That expressesses your position, yes…” Doc scribbles his notes he thinks I can’t read upside down.  I question if he knows I can read.  You find three hungry zebra fillies in a refugee camp.  You only have two Taste-E Colt candybars.  What to you do?” “I break both bars in half and we each get half a bar.”  Don’t judge me, I’m hungry too! “You are wandering alone.  You come up on a seriously wounded pony, dying of dehydration.  You don’t have enough water for both of you.  What do you do?”  The voice is hypnotic.  I don’t even know why I tell the truth. “I am so sorry…” I’ve said these words too many times.  “I offer ‘em a chance to die quick or a chance to try to live.  Ain’t much for mercy killin’ but dehydration is a bad way to go.” The Doc waits a sec before scribbling in his note book.  “I see, yes… that makes sense…” “Alright then…”  And it’s on to the next one, as easy as that.  “Your friend has baked you a fresh batch of fritters for your train trip to your new job at the Ministry of War Time Technology in Appleoosa.   However instead of your favorite Apple Family Brand Apples, she has used grainy and overly tart Gran Pear brand pie filling.  She asked you honestly, ‘What do you think?’” I am imagining *any* fresh fruit fritters right now, cause for real I am kinda hungry.  “If anypony ever just baked me anything and said ‘I hope you don’t get hungry on your trip’, I would fall down and cry like a little filly.  I ain’t gonna lie to ya.” “Heh, I suppose some these question may seem a little outdated, but how you answer is really what’s important.”  Does the Doc have hypnotic magic that puts you in trances?  Cause I’m kinda feeling entranced.  “You're formal rival falls on hard times, and comes to your office begging for a job.  You know that she’s not qualified for the job, and emotionally unstable.  But she really needs the job.  How would you deal with that?” “Wow, that is just oddly specific.  I dated an alicorn once…during their ‘unity’ thing... it was weird.  They actually put that in a medical book?  As a real question?  Pre War ponies were weird Doc, don’t know what else to say.”  I could say how insanely relaxing this is.  Maybe it’s just because the last thing I did was get shot in the head. “Well that certainly is an answer.”  The doc chuckles and scribbles more words in his notes.  “Now just one more.  Pinkie Pie is watching.  Always.  How do you feel about that?” “I hope she likes the show.”  I don’t even hesitate, and I never try to not-smile. “Well, you seem to have at least most of your ducks in line,  Mr. Courier.”  Doc nods as he closes his notebook.  “I’m afraid whoever shot you didn’t leave you with much.  The only thing they left really was your courier badge.  Now I’ve got a spare stable suit, so you ain’t wandering around town buck naked.  No offense but nopony wants to see all that.  And you're welcome to take anything you need from the Lost and Found.  That’s all the things from the wasteland patients that didn’t make it.  Seems fitting since your the first patient I brought back from quite that dead.” “Thanks Doc.”  I smile as friendly as my face allows, as I hoof through the box of stuff, taking a 10mm pistol and a hooful of caps and ammo.  “You are the best.” “I do the best I can, and you came in here in a bad way.  I did the best I could, but you lost a lot of brain tissue.”  The doc shuffles, this isn’t a normal ‘I’m being nice’ gift, I can tell. “Naw, Doc, that’s just too much,” It’s all I can say when he just pulls a pipbuck out of a cabinet. “The wasteland has done you wrong, and it might surprise you to know an old stable dweller like me knows what it’s like to have their whole life just buried.  So you just shut up and hold out your main hoof.”  I’m not crying.  That is liquid faith in ponykind, because Doc Hitch All is forever the best doctor Equestria will ever know.