//------------------------------//
// Chapter Three: Second Impressions 
// Story: Trauma Center: Equestrian Opinion 
// by Legion222 
//------------------------------//

Trauma Center: Equestrian Opinion
Chapter Three: Second Impressions

Location: Ponyville Medical

The office of Doctor Direct Styles was a mess. His moderately sized oak desk seemed tiny compared to the piles of paperwork scattered across it, the bookshelf across one wall was completely disorganized, and the garbage bin in the corner was surrounded by crumpled­ up papers that had missed landing inside of it.

Nurse Angelic Temperament curiously flattened out one of said papers, and snorted in irritation when she found it covered in nothing but doodles. I know they said he was new, but this is ridiculous. Sighing, she picked it up and deposited it in the trash, then took yet another glance at the clock hanging on the wall. He's almost an hour late! What could possibly be taking him so long?

Nurse Temperament had been waiting for over two hours for her partner to arrive at the hospital. They were supposed to have their first operation as a team, and the pre­-op should have started half an hour ago. She had hoped that he would arrive early, giving them extra time to prepare, but now they were very behind schedule.

She had just taken to pacing back and forth across the office floor when she heard the door open. The doctor who entered the room looked just as unkempt as his office, and had clearly run to work, if his panting was anything to go off of. Needless to say, Nurse Temperament was not impressed. "Do you have any idea what time it is?" she barely kept herself from shouting.

Direct Styles was still breathing heavily as he answered, "Sorry I'm late... Alarm clock broke... Woke up late..."

"Even so, this is unacceptable!" gesturing to the clock, she continued fuming at him. "You're nearly an hour late! Your patients should not have to wait just because you slept in!" She was practically yelling in his face by the end, and the shocked stallion had no chance to reply before his assistant headed for the door. "Now that you've finally arrived," her voice had dropped to a much quieter, but still hostile, tone, "I'll go and bring your patient in."

After the door quietly slammed behind her, Direct shook the cobwebs from his mind, then set to work tidying up himself and his office, trying to be at least somewhat presentable. He found the file for their first patient in the mound of papers on his desk, and quickly dumped everything else into a drawer to be sorted through later. He absentmindedly levitated the papers around the trash bin into it as he studied the file, simultaneously running one hoof through his messy bedmane.

Name: Forest Melody
Gender: Female
Age: 21

He got no further into the file, as the door opened at that moment, revealing Nurse Temperament and a young Unicorn mare. Her coat was a dark green and her mane a dark blue, each splotched throughout with darker patches. Combined with her dark green eyes, her appearance was reminiscent of a dark forest, quite befitting her first name. As she took a seat at a chair in front of his desk, Direct noted her Cutie Mark: a pair of black eighth notes on either side of a microphone. The whole thing nearly blended into her dark coat, and Nurse Temperament barely hid a scowl at seeing the doctor inspecting his patient's flank.

The mare finally settled in and looked up just as Direct brought his attention back to the matter at hoof. Clearing his throat, he stuck one hoof over the desk for the mare to shake. "Forest Melody?" he asked. She nodded and shook his hoof as he introduced himself. "I'm Doctor Styles, and I'll be the operating surgeon in your procedure today."

"O­-okay..." Forest mumbled softly.

Plowing right ahead, Direct began explaining the operation, or at least what he remembered from previous skimmings of her file. "We'll be removing a cluster of polyps from your outer trachea, and ensuring that there is no further damage present in the area. It's a delicate operation, but it should go fine."

Forest quietly blanched. "Umm, 'it should go fine?'" she whispered, and both of the other ponies had to strain to catch what she was saying. Nurse Temperament too had picked up on his poor wording, and couldn't help but facehoof behind the oblivious doctor.

"Yep. We're hoping for the best."

Forest Melody had been, understandably, nervous about her operation. Now, however, she was practically terrified. Her body started trembling as she sat in front of the doctor who was doing nothing to inspire confidence. "H-hoping?" her voice was practically inaudible. Mercifully, Nurse Temperament butted in.

"If you'll come with me, Miss Melody," she trotted over and laid a calming hoof on Forest's back, "I need to take some readings before the operation." Forest ceased her trembling and visibly relaxed, standing up and walking with the nurse to the door. "Oh, can you wait out here for a moment?" Nurse Temperament said as they exited the room. "I need to collect some things." Nurse Temperament moved back into the room, softly closed the door, paused for a moment, then whipped around and marched up to a bewildered Doctor Styles. "Doctor Styles, what are you doing?" she whispered harshly, getting right up in his face.

"Wha­-" the young doctor sputtered, "what do you mean?"

"Miss Melody was obviously quite anxious about her operation, and instead of helping her feel better about it, all you've done is make her more nervous!" Her wings flared out behind her in agitation, and for a brief moment Direct wondered if she was about to start smacking him with them. Instead, however, she continued the beatdown verbally. "I swear, the only thing you could have done worse was to tell her that you had never performed this operation before!"

"But­-" Direct tried to begin, but Nurse Temperament wasn't done yet.

"I don't know if you realize this, Doctor Styles, but this just so happens to be the patient's livelihood at stake, here!" Seeing his confused look, she facehoofed again, backing out of his face a bit as her wings started to fall back to her sides. "Since you obviously didn't read the file all the way through, let me fill you in. Miss Forest Melody is the lead singer in a popular new band. If this operation doesn't go perfectly, it's possible that she will never speak again, much less sing."

With the extra breathing room, Direct was finally able to put two and two together. His brain went into overdrive to formulate a response. "Crap."

Nurse Temperament opened her mouth to speak, but what she was going to say was lost as she heard a light tapping on the door. Barely loud enough to be heard over the knocks came the voice of Forest Melody. "Umm, excuse me? Nurse? A­re you coming?"

Immediately, Nurse Temperament's demeanor shifted. Her wings folded back against her side, her eyes softened, and her whole body relaxed. In a calm, kind voice, she called over her shoulder. "Yes, I'm coming." Turning back to Doctor Styles, she sighed. "Just... Just get ready for the operation." With that, she trotted over to where she had left a small stack of papers, rolled them up, and tucked them under a wing as she exited the room.





Doctor Styles sat in the briefing room, staring intently at the charts being set up by Nurse Temperament. From across the table, Doctor Stables was gazing curiously at him, wondering what had caused the younger stallion to suddenly be so earnest in his work. Not that he was going to complain about Doctor Styles taking his job seriously, of course, but he had been quite surprised when he had arrived in the briefing room to find Direct not only already there, but actually studying the reports on his own. What happened to having to go get him from the lounge and explain the entire operation on the way? he thought, rolling his eyes. Maybe this new nurse is even better than we thought...

The room was silent but for the rustling of papers for another minute or so, until Nurse Temperament had finished setting up the charts. Turning around to face the two doctors, she cleared her throat, grabbing their attention, and began the briefing.

"Our patient today is Forest Melody, a twenty-one year old Unicorn mare. Around a month ago, she began experiencing severe throat pains whenever she sang. A few tests were conducted, and it was determined that she had a cluster of polyps on her outer trachea. The polyps are very small, and this normally would not be pressing enough of an issue to warrant immediate surgical intervention. However, given the patient's budding singing career, it was decided that the quickest method would be the best.

"The operation will consist of two steps: using the surgical laser to incinerate the polyps, and checking the surrounding area for any other signs of damage caused by the growths. Any questions?" The two doctors shook their heads in unison. "In that case, let's begin."





Forest Melody's unconscious body lay on its back on the surgical table, the bright lamps above shining down on her. Her head was tilted back, exposing her whole neck, where a black incision guideline lay in the middle of a small patch of shaved skin, right above her throat.

Standing at the side of the table, staring down at the unconscious mare, Doctor Styles once again felt the weight of what he was doing hit him. Her entire life is in my hooves... Gulping slightly, he nodded and gestured with one hoof, signaling to Nurse Temperament, standing beside him with the usual tray of supplies, and Doctor Stables, standing across the table from them and looking on silently, that he was ready. "Let's begin."

"Then let's start with an entry incision," she said, hoofing him the bottle of green Antibiotic Gel. He gently applied a dab to the incision guideline, then traded the Gel for a scalpel. Wielding the small, extremely sharp knife carefully in his magic, he slowly cut along the guideline, making sure not to press too hard and accidentally cut open her trachea.

With the entry incision made, Nurse Temperament gave each of the doctors a silver eyepiece, then put one on herself. "Magnification lenses," Direct noted, "makes sense, working in such a small area."

Nurse Temperament nodded. "Just press the button on the side, and the crystal that makes up the lens will magically zoom in. Just be careful, since even the slightest movement can change your field of view dramatically." Both doctors nodded; this was something they already knew, though a refresher never hurt. "Now, let's have a look here..."

Following Nurse Temperament's example, Direct tapped the button on the side of the eyepiece, zooming in on the uppermost section of the patient's outer trachea. Immediately, he saw the problem area. A small section of the trachea was covered in a cloud of blood, underneath which Direct could make out a number of tiny, almost pimple-like growths. "It's no good, we can't do anything with this blood in the way. Nurse Temperament, could you hoof me the drain?"

"Already on it," she replied, sliding the plastic tube into Direct's field of vision. He took it in his magic's grasp, flipped it on, and moved it through the blood. In a matter of seconds, all of the blood had been sucked up. "Now that that's taken care of, let's see what we're dealing with, here."

A cluster of small growths covered most of the area under where the blood had been. Each one was tiny, not quite a milimeter in diameter, but the area they covered was fairly large. It was no wonder why Forest Melody had been experiencing pain.

After several seconds of taking in the sight, Nurse Temperament got them back on track. "Quit ogling and start the laser treatment already," she snarked. Opening up a small black case, she pulled out a thin black cylinder. It had a tiny opening on one side, through which could be seen a shard of magic crystal. She brought it over to the doctor, who took it in his magic. "Aim the opening at the polyps, then use your magic to activate the crystal. It will focus the power into a tiny beam of pure energy, which will come out of the opening and incinerate the polyps." Doctor Styles nodded. He had practiced with a surgical laser once or twice back in medical school, shortly after the neat little tool had been invented.

Doing exactly as Nurse Temperament had instructed, he carefully aimed the laser, then turned it on with a steady stream of magic. A thin blue beam fired out of the little black cylinder, incinerating a polyp almost instantly, and leaving a small wound where it had once been. Satisfied, he turned the beam off for a moment. "Good," commented Nurse Temperament, "the polyp is completely gone. Be sure not to continue focusing the laser when there's nothing to burn, though; you could cause some serious damage to the normal tissue if you aren't careful."

Nodding, Doctor Styles adjusted his glasses and the magnifying lens, then fired up the laser again, zapping a few more polyps. Suddenly, one of them erupted into another cloud of blood as he incinerated it. "Woah!" he exclaimed, shutting off the laser.

Nurse Temperament sighed. "It seems that it's impossible to remove all of the polyps without damaging at least some of the surrounding capillaries. Drain the blood quickly, and let's move on." Direct quickly complied, once more taking the drain. With the blood out of the way, he was able to switch back to the laser, and had the cluster of polyps incinerated in short order. "Now that that's done, let's take care of the wounds left behind by incinerating the polyps." She hoofed Doctor Styles the vial of Antibiotic Gel, and watched as he used his magic to spread it over the group of wounds. Before their eyes, the small holes healed over, leaving the entire section of trachea indistinguishable from the rest.

"Right. Now, I believe our next step is to search the rest of the trachea for any more problem areas, correct?" Doctor Styles asked.

"Right," Nurse Temperament responded. "Let's just slowly move our view down the length of the-oh my!"

Just below their previous field of vision, another, larger cluster of polyps rested. It, too, was covered in a cloud of blood, even thicker than before. "Oh boy," Doctor Styles sighed. "Looks like we'll have to take care of this one, too. It's a wonder that Miss Melody was feeling as well as she was."

With that, the pair got right back to work. After draining the blood, Direct charged up the laser again. There are so many of them... This is going to take forever, he groaned. But then, he had an idea. What if, instead of incinerating them one at a time, I keep the laser on and get a bunch of them in one go? Feeling proud of his little plan, he put it into action, rapidly moving the laser from one polyp to the next as a continuous stream of magic burned tissue indiscriminately.

"Doctor Styles, stop!" Startled, Doctor Styles's focus slipped, and the laser shut down. Turning to the source of the shout, all he saw was a field of pink before he remembered to deactivate the magnifying lens, zooming out to see the simultaneously shocked and furious face of his assistant. He immediately wished he had left the lens on. "What in Equestria were you thinking!? Just look at all of the tissue damage you just caused!"

Doctor Styles looked, and even without his lens activated he could easily see the large patch of burned tissue he had just created, and how much of it hadn't been polyps beforehand. Dear Celestia, he realized belatedly, his eyes widening at the sight before him, that did way more harm than good... As he watched, blood began seeping from the burned area, completely covering it in no time at all. "I-I just wanted to speed things up..."

"And that's all well and good, Direct," cut in Doctor Stables, shooting Doctor Styles a stern look, "but as I've said before, you must never sacrifice precision for speed. What we do is far too important to risk messing up just to go a little faster."

"I'm sorry, Doctor Stables. I'll remember that, I promise." Direct's head hung in shame. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Nurse Temperament even reminded me about not letting the laser touch any regular tissue, but I still forgot. Maybe... Maybe Mom and Dad were right...

"Doctor Styles!" Nurse Temperament's shout broke Doctor Styles's inner thoughts. "Are you going to fix your mistake, or not?" She glared at him impatiently.

"Er, right. Let's continue the operation. Nurse Temperament, I'll need the drain to clear this blood." Reactivating their magnifying lenses, the two returned to the operation. Once again, Direct drained the blood obscuring their work area, then tried using the Antibiotic Gel to heal the burns he had caused. However, the burns were bleeding heavily, and the tissue seemingly refused to seal up properly. "It's not working! We need something else to cover these wounds with."

"How about a synthetic membrane?" Nurse Temperament suggested, retrieving one from the cart.

"That might work. Let's try it," Direct nodded slightly. Taking the membrane in his magic, he once again drained blood from the area, then covered the whole of it with the membrane. Acting quickly, he applied a generous amount of Gel to the membrane, causing it to attach to the surface of the trachea. The wound beneath was still bleeding, but the Gel-soaked membrane held fast.

All three medical ponies sighed in relief, glad to have fixed that problem. After waiting a moment to make sure nothing else happened, Doctor Styles went back to work with the laser, once again incinerating the polyps one at a time. Faster than he had expected, they were done. Another round of Gel closed up the small injuries, and a scan of the remainder of the trachea revealed no further problem areas.

"Well, it looks like we're done here," Nurse Temperament said at last. "Cease magnification, and we can close up the entry incision." Each of them removed their lenses, and Doctor Styles sutured the initial incision closed. After a coating of Antibiotic Gel and a bandage, Doctor Styles stepped back from the table at last.

"Operation complete."





Well, he's certainly improving, Nurse Angelic Temperament had to concede, watching as Doctor Styles spoke to Forest Melody, informing her that the operation had been a complete success, but he's still an inexperienced slacker. She, Doctor Styles, and Forest Melody were in Forest's temporary hospital room, herself standing by the door while Direct stood next to the bed that Forest was lying in. Doctor Stables had been called away shortly after the operation by a nurse informing him of an “urgent letter,” and she hadn’t seen him since.

"Don't try to talk just yet, your throat's still healing. But don't worry, give it a few weeks and you'll be singing just like before," Direct smiled, and the dark green mare smiled back. Even though she was unable to speak, the tears in her eyes made her mouthed "thank you" loud and clear. "Speaking of which, when's your next performance in Ponyville?"

As the doctor continued talking to his mute patient, Nurse Temperament gazed absently around the room. The walls were painted blue, while the ceiling was green. The floor was tiled, and each of the four beds in the room had a curtain that could, if necessary, be pulled all the way around it for privacy. The small table beside each bed held a small lamp, and Forest's had a glass of water as well.

"C'mon, Nurse Temperament, I think it's time to go get ready for our next appointment." Nurse Temperament was startled out of her reverie by Doctor Styles's voice right beside her, and she noticed that he had wrapped up his one-sided conversation with Forest and was now standing in the doorway.

"Ahem. Of course, Doctor." She followed him out into the hallway, and they were passing by a door to the front lobby when he held up a stack of completed paperwork.

"Hang on, I need to drop these off really quickly." With that, he turned and entered the front lobby. Without thinking, she followed.

No sooner had she stepped fully into the lobby than she heard an overly loud gasp. "I knew it!" Screamed an extremely high voice on the other side of the room, and she barely managed to look in time to see a bright pink blur tackle her to the ground. "I knew there was a new pony in town!" Shaking away the tiny birds that were flying in circles around her head, Angelic Temperament looked up to see a pink mare with a poofy pink mane sitting on her, gazing down at her with bright blue eyes and a smile that was so wide, it seemed physically impossible.

"Oh, hello, Pinkie." Direct nonchalantly remarked. "I see you've met Nurse Temperament."

"Hiya, Direct!" Pinkie giggled. "So, is this your new fillyfriend?"

Angelic Temperament blushed, scowled, and shouted, "NO!"

Pinkie giggled again, "Well, duh. I was just joking, Miss not-Direct's-fillyfriend.”

“Well, g-” Nurse Temperament started, still scowling.

“But!" Pinkie ended her rambling with an exclamation, cutting off Nurse Temperament's attempt to speak. "I don't know you, and that means you must be new in town, since I know everypony in town."

"That’s nice. Could you-”

"So!" Once again cutting off the mare she was still sitting on, Pinkie rambled onwards. "That means I need to get to know you, and what better way to get to know somepony than with a PARTY?!"

With that, Pinkie jumped off of Angelic Temperament, grabbed her hoof, and bolted out the front door, dragging the stunned nurse with her.

Direct stood by the front desk, staring at the door that the pink party pony and his assistant had just disappeared through, a slight smirk appearing on his face. “Well,” turning back to the attendant at the desk, he chuckled lightly. He, just like everypony else in Ponyville, had grown used to Pinkie’s antics eventually. “I guess you should just send in my next patient now; I think Nurse Temperament will be a while.”