The Doc

by GTBBrony

Chapter One: Review

(I do not own any part of MLP:FiM)

For as long as I’ve been managing my clinic in this bustling city of Canterlot, I don’t think I could ever get used to some of the odd things I’ve seen come through here. Even though times can get tough at my little business, it’s hardships pale in comparison to living with the two ruling mares of Equestria. Who am I? Well, people around here call me Doc, I’m just a simple small town pony living in a large city filled to the brim with the rich and famous, and if you would let me, I would like to share with you the tale of a large and talentless unicorn that became the pupil of the ruler of Equestia, Princess Celestia, and how he came to run his own clinic in the city of wonder and enchantment.

During my younger years, I came out of the prestigious Med-Magic School of Canterlot wanting to be the best doctor I could be. Unfortunately at the time I thought that being the best of the best meant being renown in the medical profession for my research, and by working for the royal family. Mainly though, I wanted to be the personal doctor to Princess Celestia, as I had always been somewhat infatuated with her beauty and power. I know, I know, shes a few thousands of years old, but isn't age just a number? With the help of my favorite professor, I met the princess and became her next pupil. Since then, I’ve lived in the castle with these two alicorns for what seems like many … many years. It’s any colt’s dream come true right? Oh how I was wrong. These wrongs are starting to add up, by the way.

You might be asking yourself right about now what had happened to her other pupil, Twilight Sparkle. Well about a year before Celestia chose me as her next pupil, Twilight had become famous all over Equestria after the news spread of her and her friends defeating Nightmare Moon and the Ursa Minor through every social media available to ponykind. I remember, way back when those stories first got out, and was completely surprised to hear of how a little purple unicorn and her friends defeated an ancient evil that even Celestia herself couldn’t stop. I also remember reading a certain quote in an article that the Equestrian Inquisitor published that said “If friendship was all that needed to vanquish the vicious mistress of the night, then it sounds like to this pony that Celestia was one lonely alicorn unfit to rule.” Let’s just say it got me madder than an applebucker in a cherry orchard, but I digress. After these stories got out, Twilight and her friends went into seclusion to avoid dealing with one of the unfortunate side effects of being famous, dealing with the paparazzi. (With the exception of Rarity, who in one year, was able to use the attention to expand and establish her business.) Being the colt that I am, and from what I had seen plastered all over Equestria detailing their social life and other irrelevant information, let’s just say I wouldn’t wish it on anypony.

How did I become her pupil?

Slow down on the questions, y’all giving me a headache.

In college, I met a professor by the name of W. Bottom. He was the pony who taught me a lot of what I know about being a surgeon. Eventually, I chose him to be my advisor, and we became close friends. He knew everything about me, whereas I thought I knew everything about him. I had told him about my foal-hood crush on Celestia and how I wanted to become the Royal Doctor, which I wouldn’t have ever done if I knew that he was well aquainted with the princess, and he got an idea, a maniacal diabolic idea.

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One day, trotting to see my advisor for one of our daily afternoon meetings, we met outside the door to his office and he told me sompony was waiting in there for me, a certain mare who would be delighted to see me. Oh Celestia, was I in for a surprise. No really, the mare waiting inside for me was not a mare at all, but an alicorn, a certain alicorn that went by the name of Celestia. This princess waiting inside for me wanted to find out why a large unicorn like me, with little to no magical power, had a crossed scalpel and caduceus for a cutie mark. She may not have been the most capable princess out of the two sisters in the subject of medicine, but even she knew that doctors needed magical ability to do their work, and a lot of it. She had later told me that she was also a bit annoyed that day when she had come to take time out of her busy day to see this little pony as a favor to one of her old friends, Professor W. Bottom. I love the hay outta ya man, but one day I will slap the smug off your face for messing with my feelings towards the princess like that. All that’ll be left of that smile will be a small black puddle on the floor.

So during our one-on-one meeting… she did some things that normal pony’s would call inappropriate of a ruler. This princess who raised the sun every day, this ruler of a nation, acted like a little filly, a powerful and conniving filly that ruled over all of Equestria.

As soon as I walked through the door, she could see right through my blushing self as she told me to take a seat in front of her desk that she stood so highly above. So this is the regal presence of a princess, I stated to myself. She proceeded to ask me some questions about me, and why I was so passionate to become a doctor. My face became as red as the sun she herself raises everyday as I began to give her some details of my life.

“So, it seems that you’re not well versed in meeting etiquette. You’re supposed to tell me your name and a little about yourself as soon as you walk through the door. It’s fine though, just remember that little bit of advice for many of the other meetings that you will definitely have in your life. No, go ahead and tell me a little bit about yourself my good colt.” she says while smiling at me, trying to reduce some of the tension hanging in the air.

“I-I’m so sorry your highness, my name is Doc. I’m a graduate of the University, I ha-have my undergraduate degree in Biology and Pre-Med, and I’m earning my ma-masters’ in Pony-Focused Biology.

“So Doc, tell me a little bit about where you came from, and about how you received your cutie mark?”

“Well princess, from birth, I always had a p-poor amount of magic that I could barely use to lift a two pound object, much less heal any kind of scratch or bruise. Let’s just say, I was an oddity. Even though my mom was a world renowned d-doctor, and my father who was gifted in pyrokinesis, I had no magical talent. I will always remember hearing as a little foal that children of magically gifted parents would be predisposed to having magical talent as well, and that it may just take some time for it to mature. I al-always held hope that my situation would change though, that maybe I would get my ma-magic when I finally found my cutie mark. Through a series of unfortunate events, I finally found my flank symbol during a middle school tussle with just one of the schoolyard bullies I had in my life. You think with somepony as large as I wa-was, that the other foals wouldn’t want to mess with me. Boy was I wrong.”

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“Well how do you like that, no-magic here thinks he can stand up to me, Stomper?”

“Ahm tired of you messin’ with me and the o-others all the time. Ah just figured somepony ought-ta knock ya down a peg,” I said as menacingly as I could, running my hoof through the dirt.

“It’s your funeral pipsqueak,” Stomper said as he turned his flank around to kick me. I figured that’s the first thing an idiot of an earth pony would do, so I stepped back and let him buck the poor space of air that once surrounded my face.

“You’re an earth pony with no ma-magic, Ahm a unicorn with no magic. wa-we’re essentially the same, ‘cept I got a horn.

“You see that’s, where you’re wrong biggun’. I got these legs of mine,” he interrupts himself as he poorly tries to buck my hoofs out from under me, “to make up for havin’ no magic. You’re about as useless as shark out of water.”

“I don’t want to fight ya Stomp, but if ya want to keep bu-bullyin’ me,” I said, mustering up all the magic I had. “Then ya gonna have ta earn it!” I closed my eyes, feeling the magic settle around my horn, creating a green silhouette that I knew of so fondly. I then galloped at him as fast as my little hoofs would go, not really thinking what would inevitably happen next.

And here I thought that I was going to be a hero of the school. That I would be the one to finally end the reign of tyranny that Stomper had brought with his transfer, that the fillies would see me, not as a useless unicorn, but as somepony powerful and coltly enough to have their respect and admiration. Too bad those thoughts of grandeur ended pretty quickly as I opened my eyes to see Stomper’s flank as he was rearing back to buck me in the face.

“Sooo sorry buckaroo, try again when you’re worth my time.” He utters through that buck teethed smirk of his, letting go of all the power he had stored in his rear hoofs.
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“Even though I lost the fight to my foal-hood bully, some good did end up coming out of that horrific day; I had finally got my cutie mark. That day, I knew that my pu-purpose in life was to help other ponies in need (a realization brought around by having the school nurse Ms. Redheart tend to my broken nose that day), that I should follow Stomper’s example, work with what little power I did have and not worry about power I di-didn’t have. Although I didn’t know at the time, nor did I really care, that most doctors in Equestia used magic that was way out of my league to heal their patients, I worked very hard over many years to co-compensate for my lack of magic.”

Holding a look of slight amusement at me the entire time I told my heartfelt story, Celestia continued with the battery of questions. “My my, it seems you have had a hard childhood. Tell me then, how did a colt like you with little magic plan to practice medicine?”

“It wasn’t until college that I found out that th-there was another way to treat ponies without the need of heightened magical ability. As I studied for my first midterms in college, I found an odd and dusty tome in the medical section of the Canterlot library. This book summarized the pr-practices of a strange type of medical ponies in the medicine field that called themselves surgeons. From what I could read from the dusty old book, they were me-medical ponies that specialized in the use of bone saws, potions, and other instrumentation. It continued to say that their specialty may cause their patients to heal slightly slower than regular magical cures in the long run, but the treatment could also be performed faster while requiring less manpower and energy of the doctors. There was one requirement though for this specialty, that the doctor must have precise control over their instruments, or risk severe complications from the procedures.”

“It seems like you found a way to pursue your dream. I’m sorry for interrupting, go ahead with your story Doc.”

“Ce-Certainly princess. Th-This was one of those turning points in life I had always heard about from other ponies my age. I had finally found the means to execute my purpose in life. My parents and teachers were right, while my magic didn’t increase with maturity, my disability did help to guide and teach me from a young age that while my power wasn’t strong, it was precise, and with my training and hard work, I was able to use my power for long periods of time. That endurance was what I needed to save as many ponies’ lives as I could out on the field during times of war, or even performing time-consuming surgeries that would take other doctors weeks of magical treatment by themselves.

The sad thing was, surgery courses had long ago been phased out by the undergraduate college, and was only offered for the graduate students as a sort of “history class” that they could take in order to fill up their needed credit hours. These classes were taught by Professor Bottom, and even though I still don’t think he could perform these surgeries himself nor would I trust him to do so, he is a great historian that has always been very helpful in my education. The professor always says he saw amazing talent in me all those years ago, and from then on has always helped me to realize my dream and become the first surgeon of Equestria in over twelve generations.”

“Sounds like quite a feat. I’m glad you found somepony like the professor to help you on your way to becoming a surgeon. I’m surprised you were able to motivate him. I don’t think he would ever get up out of bed in the mornings if it wasn’t for his need of bits to put a roof over his head. I trust his lack of initiative will not rub off on you, will it?

Will I become lazy like him, she ask? pfft.

She’s so wonderful and thoughtful of my well-being.

Although I was doing a pretty good job at keeping my internal bipolar dialogue in check, I was pretty embarrassed from having my royal crush quiz me even more on the little details of my life. At this point I just wanted to run from the room with my tail between my legs, hoping that the professor didn’t tell her about that. Unlucky for me though, she started to tire of small talk, and began to address the pink elephant in the room. “So tell me, why do you want to work exclusively for my family? I think I am a little more than capable of healing my own self and others better than you could, and already have plenty of other royal guard medics that can contribute if the need arises. Tell me, why I should hire you when you get out of Med-Magic school, suffice it to say you can even pass the board interview with your little… problem. Now tell me, why do I need you?”

Even though I know now that she didn’t mean it as threatening as I had taken it during that moment, it stressed this laid back pony to no end. Something within my brain snapped, and although it wasn’t a psychotic snap, at was a snap that brought with it a curtain of confidence and calmness. With my newfound clarity, and after what seemed like hours to me, I proceeded to lie back in my chair and think about how to reply to her.

“To be honest, you don’t need me. You’re a powerful alicorn, with more magic than you can shake a stick at. When I see the things you’ve done, easily banishing another princess with almost the same power as you to the moon, I can’t see why you’d ever need me. I’ll tell you what though, while you may not need me, you want me. Using the information I’ve gathered during our meeting, you know little of healing magic’s, and nothing about my area of practice, so let me tell you a little something. In a peaceful world that uses raw magic to heal others, there’s been no need of my barbaric practices of cutting open another pony to save their life. It’s seen as gore-y and uncouth when a team of medical ponies can just as easily heal the patient without touching them, While this method may lead to a somewhat quicker recovery, instantaneous in some cases, it still resides under the law of magic. Ethereal energies can easily backfire if improperly set up or if used for the wrong disease, causing more injury to the patient, sometimes causing irreversible magic damage to internal organs. My cutie mark is a crossed scalpel and caduceus, which means my purpose in this world, is to cut ponies open and save their lives. I am (what was once called) a surgeon, I quickly go straight to the source of the problem, I solve that problem, and then I get my patients back to living a normal life. While my methods are better suited for earth ponies that have somewhat more resistance to magical healing, I wish to work under the p-princess. My craft is a dying breed, being phased out by a peaceful world becoming more magically advanced. If I were t-to work under you, it might secure me a few mentees who wish to become surgeons as well, should it e-ever need to be practiced en masse. I also know more cures for diseases than an alicorn like you would c-care to know of… s-should you ever need them. I can also provide you sound medical advice while commanding and creat-t-ting an infrastructure of your royal guard’s medics, keeping them up t-to date in their respective fields. So, I ask you, even though you may not need me, do you want somep-pony like me?”

I thought to myself, Where did all that come from? Why don’t I ever get this confident when I need it, and did I just talk to the ruler of all of Equestria as if she were a regular mare? This is the end, this is the end for sure. I’m going to be straight banished for this one. Oh well, I lived a happy life of being a professional student. Wait, what am I saying?

“You have talked to the ruler of this land in a manner of familiarity not even my highest-ranked advisors would use. Here you, a lowly colt, dare speak to me as if I were an equal. Many other ponies before you have been banished or imprisoned for less than what you have just done, but yes, you are right. I am an alicorn who specializes in battle magic and raising the sun, not of magics pertaining to healing diseases or injuries. I know little of healing magic as you found out, as I only know enough to get by with what my magic lets me. While I am a powerful alicorn, a powerful enough alicorn to disintegrate you right where you stand, anything more than simple healing spells seem to elude me. Yet, now that you know this, I can’t let you go free now can I? If the public were to find out that their princess doesn’t know as much as she lets on, there would be riots. You understand, correct?”

Oh well, just end this pathetic life. I have no marefriend, I’m a professional student, and the only thing I plan to eat later tonight is a cup of ramen noodles in a dingy little apartment. I’ve got nothing else to live for. Oh well, at least now I won’t have to pay my student debts. I’m pretty there’s some clause in the contracts for this sort of thing. As I cringed to prepare myself for what her rage held in store, she lowered herself gently and whispered into my ear.

“I guess the only thing I can do,” the princess started to say. “The only thing I can do is to pay for your education, and hire you on to work for my family... if you graduate,” She said as she moved away from me, playfully smacking me upside the head with her tail. “You know, I like you Doc. You seem to have something about you that I just find, rather enjoyable. Your honesty is refreshing to someone like me who has had to constantly deal with politics her whole life, and while your honesty may seem to some to be a weakness, it is also your greatest strength. No patient will fully trust their doctor who is dishonest with them, the same goes for your subordinates. So yes, I do think you will make a great doctor of the royal family. From now on, my life Doc, is in your hands." She bows and smiles warmly towards me. Never had I felt so happy in my life as I did at that moment."Although, I have never needed the use of a Royal Surgeon before, especially with Luna around. She was always the one in the family who showed interest and ability in the medical field, and with her return, I cannot tell you to command the royal medics. That will be her decision, and you can always talk with her and ask if she will let you. In fact, I will be bringing you to the palace today in order to discuss the terms of this deal. Even though Luna is a stubborn believer in the benefits of magical healing, I have a feeling that you two will get along… eventually. From this day on, I will take you as my pupil. All of my students are to stay in my residence until they graduate from their schooling (no excuses) and are allowed unfettered use of the royal library. Who knows, you might even find my other student, Twilight Sparkle, there from time to time. Unlike you, she’s learned all that she can from here and has moved away in order to pursue her studies. Also, it’ll be nice to have somepony new around the castle. I do hope that you will agree to our little deal.” With a barely noticeable wink, she waited patiently for my answer.

“Is this an Order?” I ask.

“No, but I can make it one if need be.”

“Then I guess I have no other choice?”

“I would have to say no, you don't.”

“Well then…what the hay! Sure.”

“Language! I’m still your princess!” She scoffs.

“Wow, and I can’t believe I used to have a c-crush on you.”

“You still do.”

---

On that day, almost 15 years ago, I became the student of the royal family. Some ponies say I had it all handed to me, I like to tell those ponies to shove it in their cake-holes before they talk about something they don’t know anything about. It was torture living in that castle. Celestia always had wanted to harass me, usually picking the worst times to do so. And Luna, for the first few weeks, hated me… right down to the core.

Comments

[GTBBrony]

Welcome to my first fanfic ever. I do hope it is to your liking, as OC ponies are usually frowned upon (like other unmentionable things)

Do not fear! It is not a self-insert, but this story will serve as an outlet for my medical knowledge and primary source of stress relief.

Feel free to review and comment as harsh as you want , It serves to make me a better writer.
I wish to be held accountable for the standards my readers expect of me, and being the narcissitic person I am, I want to go above and beyond those expectations and provide you with a memorable reading experinces. (some nasty long words in that last sentence )

[Oatz]

This is an awsome story, cant wait for more loved trollestia to, dont get enough of her

[GTBBrony]

And Yes, Amish chairs are AWWWEEESOOOMMME

Bwahahahaha! Yes, thats what i was seeking! Some pure unadulterated fun mixed with slight insanity!
NEXT!