The Doc

by GTBBrony

Chapter Three: Acceptance (Or Lack Thereof)

So, as I was saying. The princess had left me hanging on the proverbial fish hook of life, literally. Luna was not too fond of me and my behavior towards her, and the guards wanted my head on one of their shiny new pikes. Worst of all, I was living in a house full of mares. Now, I know your thinking, "But Doooooooc, that last part doesn’t sound aaaall that bad." Well, when your a colt that spent as much time as I did secluded in an apartment studying his flank off, it doesn't leave much opportunity to go out and talk to the guys, much less the fillies.

Did I really hate living with them that much? Nah, in reality, I loved it. As Celestia had said, not many colts could say they lived with the ponies that ruled the entire country. After Luna had warmed up to me, we became closer than peas and carrots. With her on my side we were finally able to combat the evil torment of princess Celestia, and save the world from tyranny and blah-blah-blah. First though, I’d like to tell you of how I became the first colt to experience the zero G weightlessness that accompanied being sent straight to the moon.
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­­­­­­­­­­­­­“Get enough to eat?” Princess Celestia asks as I began to stir from my comfortable stone plate of food on my comfortable stone table, in the rather comfortable stone dining hall.

“Ugh, what…” I know, just a lyrical word smith most mornings. “Wait…” I ask groggily, trying to pin-point my current location. After pulling a good amount of thoroughly brown apple peelings off my face, I look out the window to see the sun shining brightly in the middle of the sky. “Oh horse feathers, what time is it?” I ask her.

“A good while past midday, and...” She glances at the food crumbs on my face. “It seems that not only is my new pupil narcoleptic, he also sleeps well past noon.”

“Well, judging by the way you woke me up I guess I didn’t get the ‘Royal Wake up Treatment’.”

“Well, I figured by you had a long enough night. The cook came to see me earlier saying it looked as if my pupil had something troubling him. Also, there is no royal treatment on the weekends.”

“Well great! At least I don’t have to add that to my list of worries.”

“What’s wrong Doc?”

“Oh, I don’t know, how about the fact that your sister hates me and the very ground that dares to support me? How about the fact that your royal guards secretly want me to jump off that beautiful balcony of mine you letting me use? Well, I don’t know about you, but I just can’t see getting along with these p-people anytime soon, much less the rest of my seemingly short life.”

Celestia bent her tall-self down to my height, quite a feat for someone as tall as her, and tried her best to console me. “I can always talk to the g—”

“N-No!” I exclaim. “Thanks for the offer, but I can’t have you saving my flank whenever something bad happens,” I exhale. “If I’m one day going to advise Luna and the Army, acting in my position as the Royal Surgeon, then I need to earn their respect myself.”

“Well, I understand, but I will always be here to help you if you should ever need it. Remember, you are my pupil, and I will not have my subjects, much less my guards, give you any grief.”

“Wow, what happened to you last night? It seems like you’re a different Celestia today, an alter-ego of the other Celestia I met the other day. What gives?”

“Your troubles are my troubles, and I cannot stand anypony who dares give me any problems, lest they face the wrath of the keeper of the sun. Now, how about we do something to take your mind off everything?”

“What would that be?”

“I think you should accompany Luna and I on one of our elemental raisings. You can join me as I raise the sun, and it would serve to give you and Luna some private time to talk things out while she brings up the moon. How does that sound?”

“That’s…. not a bad plan. I can see why you’ve ruled the country for as long as you have, without running the place into the ground.”

“Get on now, before I change my mind about letting you go un-harrased. Now, don’t you have some else to do today, like studying?” She smiles softly at me.

Smiling back, I get off my chair and begin to explore the castle. As I walk down the hall for what seems like hours, clearly lost, I hear somepony trotting behind me. I look back to see a purple unicorn with black and purple highlighted bangs just above her eyes. She wasn’t the most memorable mare I’ve ever seen, but I felt as If I had seen her somewhere before, somewhere like on television, yet I just couldn’t put my finger on it. Well, at any rate, it seems like she knows the castle better than I do. I slow my pace to see if I could talk to the lone mare, and see if I could find out where the library was in this Celestia-forsaken place.

“Hey miss, do you know...?

“Who are you? I haven’t seen you around here before, and it doesn’t look like you really know where you’re going. Do you belong here,” the mare asks as she backs away slowly. “Do I need to go get the guards?”

“No-no-no-no, please don’t! If they hear a mare screaming all alone with a colt, I’m going to get a-axed. No trial, no jury, I’m just going to get plain ‘ol axed. What can I do to prove to you that I-I belong here?”

“I assume that if you belonged here, you would at least of gotten a tour around the castle. In fact, you look like a scared foal. Shouldn’t you see about getting someone to show you around the place?”

“Well, I never got a tour of the castle when I arrived. Luckily, I found the dining hall only after trotting around the place for a few hours. Since it looks like you know this place pretty well, I’d sure like it if I could be s-shown around by a nice pretty mare such as yourself.” Yeah I know, such a smooth stallion. I also didn’t want to see my favorite palace guards having to force themselves to put my poor flank into ground for daring to talk with this absurd mare, because they’d just hate to have to do that.

“I guess I can,” The strange filly considers as she pulls a scroll and quill out of thin air, examining the piece of parchment. “I’m just taking a walk around, wasting some a few hours before attending a meeting.”

“Alright! First though, I’d like to know your name.”

“My name is Twilight Spark—”

“YOU ARE THE TWILIGHT SPARKLE?” I can see her take a step back, stunned by the sudden increase of volume. “Wow, I’d never thought I would see the Princess’s other pupil so soon after moving to the castle.”

“Moving to the castle? New pupil!?” She sits down on the cold floor, her eyes beginning to tear up.

“W-Whats wrong?”

Sniffling, “Why does Celestia have a new pupil? Was I not good enough for her? Is that why she sent me away these last few years to study outside the castle?”

I couldn’t stand to see Twilight sad, and it made me feel awful to see this incredibly powerful unicorn in front of me reduced to tears.

“Twilight, don’t cry, please don’t cry. I’m sure Celestia didn’t send you away because she didn’t like you, I’m sure she sent you away to learn about the world. Last I had heard, the great and powerful Twilight Sparkle had made a bunch of friends in Ponyville, and that she was having the time of her life. Is what I’ve heard a lie?”

“No, but, it’s just a little unsettling that Princess Celestia would already secure a new pupil soon after my departure.” She begins to stand back up, wiping the tears off her face.

“Don’t you worry your pretty ‘lil head, I highly doubt I could ever replace you. I think you should know that Princess Celestia wouldn’t dare let me take your room, she keeps that room open for you just in case you ever decide to come back. It’s fine with me though, it’s not nearly as cool as my room,” I muster up the brightest smile I could, “so don’t feel down girl. Besides… hasn’t It been a few years since you’ve left?”

“Well, no, but thank you— oh my gosh, I’m so rude. I don’t think I even asked your name stranger,” Twilight asks as she finally begins to smile, a slight smudge on the bottom of her eye.

I didn’t think someone like her would wear makeup, guess it must be an important meeting. “Oh don’t you mind that a-at all, the names’ Doc. I’ve been recruited by Celestia to become the first Royal Surgeon ever known.”

“I think I’ve read about surgeons in an old book I once came across in the castle library. Aren’t surgeons supposedly obsolete now?” She asks quizzically.

“It sounds like a bad profession when you put it in that way. But yeah, what I do is considered an old and unneeded. I’m just glad I found someone who knows about it, it’s nice to talk to someone who actually has an idea of what a surgeon is.”

“Oh yeah, I only came across that information about surgeons by accident while looking up a way to…” Twilight casually glances out the window, suddenly becoming panicked. “If you still want that tour, it’ll have to be quick, but first I’ve got to go to the little mare’s room for a minute. Then I can show you the more interesting places around here. We’ll go see the library and then­—”

“Wait, Is The Twilight Sparkle trying to take me o-out on a date?”

Twilight looks surprised and a bit offended. “I think I should get the guards...”

“NO-NO-NO, please don’t! I’m sorry, too soon, too soon.” I nervously spat out, hoping to never have to have to discuss with the guards why I was harassing their princesses’ previous student.

Twilight laughs as she sees me so distraught. “I’m kidding, you sure are nervous around here.”

“Oh great, it seems that some of the princess has rubbed off on you. Maybe I should quit before I go insane too.”

“Well, It’s not as if I wouldn’t like to be the only pupil again.” She says with a wide smirk.

“Quiet you, before I feel the need to cut a pony. I don’t have a scalpel on my flank for nothing.”

“Get a move on,” She nudges my backside. “If you don’t hurry up, I’ll leave you here to wonder the halls.”
Twilight finally leads us back to the main hallway, where she can use the bathroom and re-adjust her makeup. Girls sure do spend a lot of time in the bathroom, amirite fellas? After easily spending fifteen minutes in the little mares room, we began the tour. First on the list was the library, Go figure, followed by the princess’s chambers and the courtyard. It was… a very informative trip at the least. Twilight was very familiar with the castle from all the history books she had read. Sadly, this run around the castle had to end when Twilight had to leave for her meeting. After asking her for the quickest route to the east hallway, we parted ways and promised to meet up another time. It was a fun outing, and I’d hope we could hang out again real soon.

Once I had gotten to my room, I went out on the balcony to relax. From Twilight’s previous tour, I had noticed that my room was the only one who had a porch to it. I don’t know why I noticed a small detail like that while ignoring larger ones, but it made me feel as If I was special. Anyways, as I lay back into the chair, I was greeted by one of those larger details that I regularly fail to recognize. There was Princess Luna, slid down all the way into one of my, ahem, their chairs. After stewing for a minute or two, I finally roused up the courage to ask her why the hay was she there.

“Hey Princess,” I ask, not daring to move a muscle in this comfortable chair of mine.

“Good day… Doc,” She says, not moving an inch of muscle either, content to slump down in her chair.

“Beautiful day out here today, huh?” Yeah, I’m the master of mindless small-talk.

“It is colt, we like to enjoy my sister’s work from time to time, and this balcony serves as the best view in the entire castle. It used to be a place for where one, such as thineself, could compose and decompress after a day of business. We would like to keep it that way, if thou would not mind.”

“By all means princess, what’s mine is yours… literally. You’ve given me so much; yet I can’t express how grateful I am. So if you ever even slightly feel the need to use this place, go ahead. If you’d like to come in though, I ask that you knock first.” I laugh, trying to make her feel at ease here. I actually want this porch of mine to become the hangout for all of us, our own little place to escape from the world and just be able to enjoy their majesties work.

“To be honest,” Luna begins “lazing about on this balcony is not the only reason why we are here. Celestia wanted us to talk to thou about the small altercation from yesterday.”
“I told her that I wanted to do this on my own, that I’d talk to you when I was ready. It seems that pony just can’t leave things well enough alone.”

The princess cringes as I mention her sister, and remembering what had happened the day before, I began operation, “Pick up the Pieces.”

“I’m sorry princess; I only have the utmost respect for you and your sister. You both dedicate your lives to what you do for this country, especially… you,” I ended nervously.

“We forgive thou, and only hope that the two of us can get along. In fact, we still do not know why our sister chose thou for a pupil. Whenever we ask her, she only mentions that we will need to speak to thou on the subject. We only remember Tia saying that we would understand better if it were to come directly from thou.” She turns her head slightly, looking me in the eyes. “So, now we ask, why did she choose a colt such as thyself?”

This is a question that I hoped would never be asked of me from her. I remember Celestia telling me that Luna was very stubborn on the whole “Healing Magic vs. Surgeon practice” idealogy, in which she just happened to be of the opposite mindset of me.

Should I tell her an outright lie? Sure I’ll be ousted later, but at least she’ll get know me first before automatically judging me.

Should I just not tell her the whole truth? I could always blame it on a misunderstanding later.

Or, Should I just tell her the truth and get it over with? Immediately, I felt a large curtain fall over my eyes as I blinked, letting me think about all the possible situations that could happen after telling Luna. Considering that I couldn’t bring myself to lie to anyone my whole life, why start now? It’s just too much a hassle for me to keep my story straight, so might as well spill the beans now.

“Princess Luna, the reason Celestia chose me as her newest pupil is so I can become the first Royal Doctor of Equestria. Admittedly, neither of us knows what that position may entail at this time, but I’m not in much of a hurry to find out. In all honesty, I’m not sure if my colleagues will even accept me taking the position, much less you.” Sighing at that last piece, I begin to gather myself for the hardest part.

“Why do you say that?” She looks at me expectantly.

“Luna, I really don’t want to tell you this, I rea-lly don’t, but I’m a surgeon. I can barely use my magic; much less use it to heal other ponies. I’m essentially an earth pony with a d-decorative horn.”

“We can see from thou’s resentment to tell me who you are; as it must stem from Celestia informing you of my ability. Yes, we are an alicorn gifted in the area of healing magic. Our sister and I discovered, a long time ago, that the reason we were born into the world were to be leaders of contradicting forces, thou would relate it to the yin yang philosophy of Mareasia. In this case, we are a healer whereas my sister is a warrior. While we do believe that to become a doctor one must make use of the most current forms of medicine, we can respect your decision to become surgeon. We have seen many good ponies practice your form of medicine in the dark ages past, yet we do not think you would meet the requirements of today’s society being in the position that Celestia has offered you.

“Why not,” I ask her, totally deflated by the way her answer seemed to take a turn for the worst.

“As thou well know, medicine is an ever-changing field. A pony such as thineself will seem to be behind the times, and like thou has said, it will be hard for others to respect a surgeon. To be in such a high position, thou must be able to lead and show medical ponies how to better themselves, all-the-while keeping their loyalty and respect. Just because one of the royal sisters appoints thou into a position of power, doesn’t mean thou will automatically gain their trust. Do you understand where we are coming from?”

“I don’t know. I’m still a young colt, so I wouldn’t have any clue on how to earn the trust of the older ponies I will one day reside over. I still constantly think about why Celestia chose me to be her pupil, much less to one day command part of the royal army. Even though I think about it quite a lot, I just push it to the back of my brain and just try to get through the day. I still have quite a bit of time before I actually have to fulfill my duties. Who knows? I might just grow up from all this bickering between Celestia and me, and actually prove myself to you that I deserve that position. You understand where I’m coming from?”

Oh, crap. Just like that, I told off that prissy acting princess Luna. I had stood my ground for what I believed in, and I hoped that finally I had earned my place among these two sisters.

Nope

Well, in the time that it took for her to scrunch up that little face of hers, it took equally as long to feel the strange sensation of being booted in the flank and fly off the ground that once supported me. As I flew through the atmospheres of Equestria, slowly starting to lose consciousness from the severe lack of oxygen, I thought to myself; You’d think in a magical realm like this, someone would have fixed that little oxygen problem, especially if they’re going to raise the sun and moon day-in day-out. I guess not.

Comments

[GTBBrony]

And here it is, Chapter 3 is up and ready for ya'll. Hope you enjoy! Also, you may want to check out chapter one again, since I've made a few minor changes that should help the story to flow better. (Reviewers are starting to say that it's getting better, if only bit by bit)

Chapter 4 will be released some time next week, but that depends on how much time BF3 takes out of my schedule. I know what your thinking, but It's not an old game if I 'm just now playing it!

Isn't Luna an uptight bitch? Yes i think so, she IS the one most behind time of it all AND THEN ACCUSE OTHER of remaining behind? What a face of bronze! LOVE THIS STORY!!

[Meta Knight]

delightful

[Adam Jensen]

That was fun, please continue.