//------------------------------//
// Chapter 8: But before we can do that... 
// Story: Doctor Song M.D.: Pony Surgeon 
// by Doctor Song MD 
//------------------------------//

It's Sunday in Ponyville, and Doctor Song reflects on why the days of the week have names of astrological objects. For the life of her, she can't figure what Wednesday is supposed to mean. She imagines a Wednesday deity in the shape of a comet zooming about in outer space. Nurse Redheart snaps the doctor out of her daydream.

"What are you standing there for, hun?" the nurse asks inquisitively.

"Oh, um..." Doctor Song shifts her eyes around, avoiding the nurse's questioning gaze. "I was just trying to decide whether or not I should amputate," she lies.

"Right. Are you sure you've been sleeping enough lately?" says the nurse, raising an eyebrow.

Song admits, "No, I probably haven't been."

"You're not worrying again, are you?"

"No, no, nothing like that," Song defends, "I've just been a bit spacey lately." She reconsiders that statement. "Well, I have been thinking that maybe the criminal will never be caught. Maybe—"

The nurse cuts her off. "'Maybe' means it's a fleeting thought, along with 'what if' and 'perhaps'. Besides, as the phrase goes, 'The good guy always wins.'"

"But how are we going to win? Ponyville doesn't even have an official police team! There are just a couple of mares on the case."

Nurse Redheart rests a reassuring hoof on Song's shoulder. "Look, hun. I'm sure Twilight and her friends will solve this case in no time at all. Twilight is Princess Celestia's student, after all. She is very smart."

Song sighs. "Okay, I get it. No more worrying." 

Satisfied, the nurse says, "See you later!"

Song heads out into the main entrance of the hospital, and her new found relief is promptly ruined when she sees two nurses carrying in a traumatized pony on a stretcher. The pony's hind leg is twisted in an ungodly manner, and covered in blood.

"Speak of Discord."

Song holds the door open as the stretcher comes in, and Song asks, "What do we have here?" even though she already knew.

The yellow nurse answers, "The pony who notified us of this emergency said, and I quote, 'This here stallion were just a yellering and then he fainted.'"

"Eh, that doesn't really give me much information, but okay. Bring her on in." The stretcher is brought into the ER, followed by Doctor Song.

The doctor inspects the injury. "Well," she begins in a contemplative manner, "The only way I think this could have happened is by somepony coming up behind, grabbing the leg while holding the body down, and then just twisting. It must have taken a lot of strength though, not to mention anger."

One of the nurses looks just about ready to vomit at the thought. "Surely, that couldn't be the case." She looks into the doctor's strangely calm eyes. "Could it?" Though the mare can't think of any other explanation herself, considering the circumstances.

Nothing else needs to be said. Everypony got outfitted and Song started fixing the leg. First thing was first, untwist the leg back into it natural position. Song then cleaned all the blood off of the large wound in order to be able to see the injury better. As soon as she wiped it though, it started getting dirty all over again. She assigned one of the nurses to put pressure on it to decrease the blood flow.

Song grabs the bone glue, puts some on the largest fractures, and bends the bone back into place. After making sure the bone is perfectly aligned, she holds it there for a few seconds. Then, she removes some fragment of bones from the surrounding area. When everything inside appeared to be in place, Song stitches up the remaining tissues together. She finishes up by applying a full leg cast, careful not to crease the fabric.

The whole process ended up only taking about an hour, one hour and a half tops. Through the entire surgery, Song is less worried up the victim and more about the pony who could have done this, almost definitely the murderer.

At the end of her shift, Song walks home, staring up at the looming gray clouds overhead. Before going home, she decides to go talk to Twilight at the library. As she approaches the library, she begins to regret even coming here, to the library, and to Ponyville. After a long inhale and a deep sigh, she knocks on the door.

"Come in." Song can hear Twilight's muffled voice, and pushes open the door. Twilight walks out from a corner of the library and greets the doctor with a simple nod. Song starts the conversation by saying, "Look Twilight, I just want to–"

"I already heard all about the incident," Twilight says in a solemn voice. She looks like she is going to burst into tears. "Poor Pinkie."

Song's eye twitches. "What?"

Twilight stares at the floor. She realizes something, then looks up at Song. "You saw her in the ER, didn't you?"

There is an awkward silence in the room, then after a brief moment of reflection Song repeats, "What?!"

Twilight rolls her eyes. "You operated on her, right?"

Song says this time in an even more bemused tone, "What?" Thinking back to the operation, she realizes the patient did have a pink coat, but it was much duller than Pinkie's, and the pony's hair was also straight. She says, "No, that couldn't have been Pinkie.

"I'm not surprised you didn't recognize her. She was pretty messed up, huh?"

Desperately trying to understand the circumstances, Song ends up having tears dribble down her cheeks. "Why?!" she screams, forcing Twilight to cover her ears. "Why did this happen to Pinkie! She was the only other pony on this case..." Her legs give way, and her bottom plunked onto the floor. "She's going to be in recovery for months."

Twilight kneels beside Song. "C'mon, you can't cry now. There's still hope. My friends and I have already saved Equestria from destruction a few times, I'm sure this will be nothing compared to those incidents."

Twilight is right. "You can stay at my place tonight if it would make you feel better."

Song really just wants to go home to take a shower and rest, by she accepts Twilight's offer. "Okay."

The mares go upstairs, and Song goes into the guest bedroom, and falls asleep almost at once.





"Doctor!" somepony says. "Song! Doctor Song! We need you!

She followed the voice through the long hall of the hospital to the ER. "What is it?" she calls out.

Another pony, presumably a relative of the victim stops the doctor and cries out, "Please save her! Oh, please!

When Song finally reaches her destination, she pushes through the door and immediately notices the patient's infected wounds. Her face is covered in blood, and green pus is oozing from the lacerations. Her eyes are rolled back up into her head. Her limbs containing broken bones are bruised a dark brownish-purple color. Song walks up to the mare and recognizes her.

It's Twilight.