A week had gone by and I was completely healed. I began working for the doctor, whose name I found out to be Arzt. For the most part, I was just working in the reception area, checking in ponies as they came in, recording their problems and then charging them the cost of their treatment. At first, things were pretty slow. Our town didn’t have a record of illness or injury. However, as the days went by things got a bit busier. Nothing too extreme, though. Dr. Arzt says it was probably just a sickness going around and would pass soon enough.
He was correct, and the amount of patients we had went back down to a more manageable number. After a few days working reception only, Dr. Arzt came over to me and says, “Veld, ‘ow vould you like to vatch me vork?” I immediately respond with, “Of course!” He gives me a smile and says, “Very good, vell, let us meet our next patient, shall ve?” He motions with a hoof and we go into the room he uses to examine patients. Inside the room is a classmate of mine, Checker. Dr. Arzt addresses him, “Hello, Checker, right?” he asks. Checker nods. “Vould you mind if Veld vatches me vork? He must learn the trade, after all,” Dr. Arzt says. Checker looks at me, before telling the doctor, “Sure, I don’t mind.”
Dr. Arzt begins his examination, starting by asking Checker about his symptoms, how long he has had this problem, and how he feels, the usual kind of things. Checker replies with, “Just a cough,”, “About a week,”, and “Mostly ok, but sometimes it gets excessive.” Dr. Arzt nods as Checker talks and takes notes on a piece of paper. Once Checker is done Dr. Arzt pulls out a stethoscope and puts it to Checker’s chest and tells him to breathe. Checker breathes a few times and the doctor takes the stethoscope away, jotting down more notes.
He then turns to me, “You zee Veld, first you must ask about zymptoms and how ze patient is. Get all ze information zhey know and zhen you are able to more adequately assist zhem. Now, Checker here zaid they ze vas ‘aving a persistent cough. As zuch, his lungs must ‘ave zhe problem. Zhus, I listen to ‘is breathing with ze stethoscope. ‘Ere, ‘ave a listen.” He gives the stethoscope to me and allows me to listen as Checker breathes, as he does so I hear a raspy noise. “You ‘ear ze zounds?” Dr. Arzt asks. I nod my head. “Zhat is zhe zound of minor fluid in zhe lungs.”
Checker gave a worried look which Dr. Arzt immediately dispelled by saying, “Nothing to vorry about, it is very common and easily treatable.” Checker breathes a sigh of relief. “Now zhen, I can give you zome medicine and also boost zhe effects using my magic. You zhould ve felling vetter in a few days, assuming you take zhe medicine regularly,” Dr. Arzt tells him as he begins channeling some magic and touches his horn to Checker’s chest. “Zhere, you zhould ve good to go now,” Dr. Arzt walks over to a cabinet and gets some medicine for Checkers, before giving it to him. “Now, if zhe problem doesn’t go avay after a few days, come again,” he tells Checker.
“Thanks Doctor,” Checker says and he gets up and leaves the examination room. “Vell?” Dr. Arzt asks me, “Vhat do you think?” I think for a moment before I answer, “I think I have a lot to learn.” He gives a chuckle and says, “Yes, most of zhe knowledge is gained through experience. You vill learn it quickly, though. Now zhen, shall ve call in our next patient?” I nod and he calls the next patient in.
Over the course of the day we spend our time looking at patients. The doctor examines them first, going through the same procedure as usual. After checking over their symptoms himself, the doctor allows me to examine them so I know what was going on for the particular issue the patient was suffering from. Most of the ponies have the same illnesses; coughing, runny noses, that sort of thing. Nothing too complicated. It was in this fashion that we pass the next few weeks.
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When I wasn’t at school or working with the doctor, I was spending it with the Society of Slumber. Not much changed from our usual routines. With no clear plan we just sit in our hideout and mess around. The others had gotten jobs as well, so there is often someone missing from our table. Aurora is working for a baker, Hem is working for a carpenter, and Lucky is working for a banker. Despite our jobs, we are still focused on our goal of finding the truth behind this town.
At first, Aurora was the most against our plan to settle down and get jobs. However, she soon grew fond of her job in the bakery and eventually got her cutie mark, which is a loaf of bread, broken in half. Hem and Lucky had also gotten their marks. Hem has two pieces of wood while Lucky has a few Bits as his. However, I have yet to get mine, which made sense since I felt my true calling lies with history, not healing. Once I come of age and get the money to leave this town, I plan to, in search of somewhere I can truly study history to its fullest.
But for now, we are all just sitting around in the hideout. “So, anything new?” Aurora asks. We all shake our heads. “Nothing? No leads of any sort?” She asks again. “No, Aurora. Like every other day you ask us, nothing new,” Lucky says. “Why do we even meet then!?” Aurora shouts. “Because spending time together is what friends do, right?” Hem says. Aurora puffs out her cheeks as she says, “I guess. But it just seems like we should actually be doing something.” I nod, “I know the feeling, but we can’t do anything if we don’t know about anything,” I tell her.
While I do plan to leave this town someday, I also want to attempt to uncover what I can about its truth. However, those in positions of power in the town aren’t exactly looking on us with good intentions. It will take time to gain their trust again and start uncovering what actually happens here. It will be a slow and arduous process, but we can do it, I know we can do it.
“Well, it is about time for me to head out,” Lucky says. “Duty calls, and all that.” He gets up from the table and heads to the door. “Have a good day at work,” Hem tells him. We all wave as he steps outside and starts heading to his job at the bank. “I should probably be going as well,” I tell Hem and Aurora. They both nod and Aurora says, “Catch you later. Find something out for us to do, will ya?” I laugh slightly and reply with, “I’ll see what I can do,” as I step out the door.
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Back in the doctor’s office I am greeted with an overwhelming swarm of patients. Dr. Arzt quickly notices me and motions me over to him and says, “Veld! Good, good! As you can zee, ve are very busy. A little too busy, if you ask me. Vhat I need you to do is use zhe zecondary examination room and ‘elp patients alone. In zhe event you do not know vhat to do, just come and zee me. Ve vill ‘ave to give our all to zee through today! Oh, make zure zhat you take notes vhen you examine zhem.” With that he walks away and calls for another patient.
I stand around for a few moments to realize what just happened. The doctor had given me permission to examine and help patients on my own, without his supervision. I take a breath and call a patient to the secondary examination room. She come in and I begin the examination. She lists off their symptoms and discuss what she knows with me. I then examine her myself to see what the issue is. It appears as though she had some sort of allergic reaction on their leg and it has broken out into a rash, nothing too major.
I gave her some medicine that would make the rash go away and sent her off. I call in the next patient and examine them as well, then the next, and the next. At first I am a little nervous working by myself and it causes me to take a while with each examination. But as I work I gain confidence in my abilities I begin to get things done faster and faster. However, there were still some things I didn’t know and I have to go ask Dr. Arzt a few times, but for the most part I handle myself fairly well, I think.
The day goes by and the patients slowly dwindle. We are about to close up for the night when one last patient frantically walks through the door. He is coughing profusely and seems to be unbalanced on his hooves. As he enters he calls out, “Doctor, help!” before he falls over and scrambles to get up. The doctor runs out and looks at the buck for a second, before quickly saying, “Veld, bring ‘im into zhe room!” I move to help the buck into the examination room while Dr. Arzt heads there before us.
As I enter the room with the patient I see Dr. Arzt preparing some things on the counter and once I lay the patient down on the bed the doctor comes over to him. “I need you to calm down and tell me about your zymptoms,” he says with a stern look. The patient coughs a bit before responding, “I can’t stop coughing and my body isn’t responding properly.” The doctor nods and asks further, “Do you ‘ave any pain anyvhere?” The patient struggles to reply while coughing with, “Yes, in my chest and abdomen.” The doctor remains silent for a moment before he calls to me, “Veld! Provide zome anezthetic, put ‘im into a zleep! Zir, you vill ve alright, you vill just ve out for a little vit.” I do as the doctor instructs and use my magic to put the patient to sleep using the anesthetic spell he taught me.
“Good, good,” the doctor says. “Now zhen…” he moves over to the counter again. He takes a syringe from it and returns to the patient’s side. “Veld, vhen I zaw ‘im enter, I immediately figured vhat vas vrong. I ‘ave only zeen zhis vefore a few times.It is a rare illness. ‘E vill need zleep and zhis medicine zhat I vill inject into ‘im. If left untreated, ‘e vill zoon ve unavle to vreathe and zuffocate to death.” After saying that he looks at me curiously for a moment before asking, “Veld, vould you like to do zhe ‘onors? You ‘aven’t used zhe syringe yet, ‘ave you?”
I look at him for a moment before nodding and taking the syringe from him. “Now, you must find ze vein,” he instructs me. “Zhere you go, now, put it inside of ‘im” I place the point of the syringe on his skin and push it gently into him. “Good, good. Now, inject zhe medicine into ‘im.” I push down on the syringe and the medicine begins to flow into the patient. “Good, now pull it out and give me zhe syringe.” I take it out and give the syringe back to Dr. Arzt. “You did vell, for your first time, Veld.”
He returns the empty syringe to the counter and turns towards me. “Veld, I vill ve ‘ere vith ‘im vhile ‘e zleeps. You go ‘ome and get zome rest. You did vell today, very vell,” the doctor compliments me. “Thanks Dr. Arzt, I did what I could. We had a lot of patients today,” I say. He nods. “Yes, ve did,” he says. “Mostly kids my age, too,” I tell him. “Vell, voth zhe young and zhe old are zhe most prone to illness, you know,” he informs me. “True,” I say as I head towards to door, “I’ll see you tomorrow, doctor.”
With that I leave the hospital and head home for the night. Since the doctor lives in the hospital, in his own private wing of it, he would be able to monitor the patient as he slept, and should the doctor grow weary himself, he could always turn in to his own bed, and still be within earshot of the patient, should something go wrong.
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The following morning, I wake up and prepare to go to school like usual. However, as I begin to groom myself I notice something different. On my flank I have a symbol that wasn’t there before. It is a syringe with a black drop of liquid falling from it. Behind the syringe is a red biohazard symbol contrasting my green coat. I look at it with mixed feeling, part of me is happy to have gotten my cutie mark, but the part is unhappy that it doesn’t have to do with history.
‘Does this mean that my true destiny lies in medicine, not in history?’ I ask myself. But why now after so long working for the doctor, I wonder. It had been weeks and I hadn’t gotten my mark yet, until today, that is. Could it have been because of helping that patient last night? Perhaps it wasn’t my destiny to help heal random ailments, but instead sicknesses that were life-threatening? I continue to think of reasons for me to get this cutie mark, and why I got it now of all times while I get ready for school.
Even at school, however, I cannot shake my mind from it. My classmates notice it and congratulate me saying that they knew I would do great things, and helping ponies with medical issues was among the greatest of things anyone could do. But I just didn’t sit well with me. My whole life I studied history and the Great Tragedies, nothing about medicine or healing. Yet I get this cutie mark. As school drags on, I find that I cannot pay attention to any of the lectures and soon school comes to an end.
I go immediately to work, hoping to take my mind off of this for a while. When I arrive, I am greeted with a wall of patients, almost double what we had yesterday. Dr. Arzt quickly ushers me inside and tells me that we will be doing the same thing as yesterday. I waste no time in beginning to examine the patients, and it helps to take my mind from the issue of my cutie mark.
As the day goes by I help more and more patients and soon the crowd dwindles, but there are still quite a few remaining. Since things have slowed down a bit, my mind begins to wonder to other things. It doesn’t go back to thinking about my cutie mark, but instead is focused on work related things. While it wonders I begin to recall my patients, a great number of which were all classmates of mine. When I realize this, I think back to school today. Even though I was barely paying attention, I remember that there were quite a few students missing today.
‘There must be something going around,’ I think to myself as I call in my next patient, who walks in the room. It is another classmate of mine. They greet me, and I them. I go through the normal routine of asking them questions and then examining them. They don’t have anything too serious and I give them the medicine they require before sending them on their way. I call for the next patient, but no one enters. I decide to walk out into the waiting room.
I see that the waiting room is empty and that the sun is going down. We had worked straight though the day and it was nearly time for us to close up. I decide to check on the doctor and enter the primary examination room. As I enter, I see the doctor with a patient. The doctor looks up and greets me, “Ah, Veld. I take it zhat zhis lovely mare is our last patient for today?” He smiles at the mare he is examining and she smiles back at him.
I nod as I say, “Yea, it seems we worked straight through the day.” He gave a worried look and says, “Yes, it vould zeem zhat something is going around. Ve are getting very busy as of late.” He continues to examine the mare for a few moments before he gets up and goes to the cabinet. He searches around in it for a moment before he turns away and looks at me, “It vould appear zhat I am out of Aloe Vera. Veld, vould you mind getting zome from my main zupply? Ah, vut vait! You ‘aven’t zeen it vefore, ‘ave you? Vell, go down zhe ‘all and enter my personal abode. Vhen inside, you vill turn to zhe right and valk down another hall and zhen zhere vill be a door on your left. It vill be in zhere.” I nod and head out the door and into the hallway.
A few minutes later, I arrive in Dr. Arzt’s personal home. I take a right and walk down the hall, like he said, and find the door on my left. I enter the room, which is filled with large containers of various medicines and herbs. I search for the one labeled “Aloe Vera” and grab some. I exit the room and turn to go back the way I came, but stop as I hear something.
I perk up my ears and listen for a moment. I hear it again, some sort of low whine. I turn around and head past the door I just exited, going further down the hall. As I get further down the hall, the sound gets louder. I am soon able to make out the low whine as a groaning of sorts. I continue walking until I come to a door that the groaning appears to be coming from.
I hesitate for a moment, but push open the door and the groaning gets louder. The room is pitch black so I illuminate my horn. Upon doing so, I immediately drop the Aloe I had been carrying in shock and stumble backwards. I look around the room, my eye widening and my mouth opens. A shiver goes down my spine as I take in the sight before me and I begin to tremble.
The room is filled with metal cages and chains and inside the cages and ponies. Some of who I recognize, others I do not. However, each one I recognize is a classmate of mine, and as a whole, they all appear to be my age. They are all chained up inside the cages, some are asleep, others moaning, and some staring blanking into the darkness. As I look closer, I notice that some appear to be suffering from some illnesses I know about and some have grotesque looking tumors covering their bodies. The floor, cages and chains are all stained with blood in various spots.
I take a hesitant step forward, walking deeper into the room. In total, I count around thirty cages, but only twenty-seven are occupied. However, every cage appears to have been used at some point. My breath becomes heavier as it take in the grisly scene before me. ‘What is this?’ I ask myself. ‘Did the doctor do this? He couldn’t have! But…’ As my mind races my eyes fall upon a pony I recognize, it is the last patient we treated yesterday.
I walk over to his cage and look at him. He is in better shape than the rest, but I can tell he is still suffering. He notices me and looks in my direction. For a moment, I see the life returning to his eyes and he opens his mouth to speak, but takes a sharp breath as his eyes grow wide. He starts to frantically yell, “NO NO NO NO NO!” all the while trying to get as far back in his cage as he can, away from me. “Wait! I’m not here to hurt you!” I attempt to assure him. “Let me hel—,“ I feel a sharp pain in the back of my skull and my body loses its strength as the world around me fades into darkness.