A Little Greenhorn
Paper Stack resisted the urge to trot in place like a filly who needed to use the restroom, instead taking a seat near the head of the long conference table. She couldn’t help but nervously tap her hoof as she fretted over the room’s lighting. At first, she had thought to leave all the lights on full brightness to show that the hospital was fully operational during Princess Luna’s night, but then she had wondered if having the lights so bright would be an insult to the night and the work that Princess did making the beautiful night sky.
In sharp contrast to Paper Stack’s excess energy, Redheart walked with the exaggerated deliberation of a pony that wasn’t entirely sure of their balance; her focus on ensuring the precious coffee cradled in her fetlock would not spill. The mare let out an explosive sigh as she took her seat next to Paperstack. Redheart’s eyes closed for a moment before she shook her head and took a sip of her coffee. The bitter triple-strength instant coffee was scalding hot and the nurse grumbled as it burned the top of her mouth slightly.
The Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Stone sat across from the mares and his expression was true to his namesake. Beside him, Dr. Asure Light, Green’s Neurologist was arranging some notes in front of her, but it was clear from the small number of pages and her lack of focus that her fidgeting served no real purpose.
Dayglow sat down next to Redheart and the fluro pegasus gave her friend a comforting shoulder squeeze. The doors opened and everypony turned in unison, but rather than the Alicorn they were expecting they were met with an aggravated Dr. Red Cross. He made his way over to Paperstack and spoke to her in a slightly hushed tone as if everypony else in the room couldn’t hear him easily.
“Alright, I’m here,” He stated. “But I can’t stay long, I’ve had to leave an intern in charge of the ER.”
“Is Emergency busy tonight?” Paper Stack queried.
“Well, not yet.” The stallion admitted.
“Do you have any critical patients?” She pushed.
“No.” The stallion sighed, “But-”
“Then they’ll be fine.” Paper Stack cut him off, “If anything happens I’m sure they’ll come get you. This is no different from you taking lunch in the break room.”
Not wanting to press the administrator further, the doctor took a seat next to Dayglow so he was closest to the door.
“Did Princess Luna really ask for this meeting to be in the middle of the night?” Red Cross grumbled. “Doesn’t she have any consideration for other ponies’ sleep schedule?”
Paperstack shot him a glare.
“She didn’t have to ask!” She said curtly, “We work to the Princess’ schedule, not the other way around.”
Red Cross was about to respond when the doors opened, but nopony was there.
At the sound of somepony clearing their throat, they sat up in their seats so they could see over the table. A tiny Thestral flapped his wings once to spring up onto the table. He was well-muscled and his keen eyes swept across the room looking for anything out of place. After a moment of observation, he spoke.
“Announcing her majesty Princess Luna, her highness Princess Sparkle, and company.” The small bat spoke officiously.
The ponies at the table rose from their seats, turning their attention to the door. Paperstack had to nudge Redheart to break the trance-like stare she was giving her coffee cup.
Twilight had protested when Mango insisted on checking the room before they entered. She and Princess Luna were two of the most powerful beings in Equestria and they hardly needed bodyguards in Ponyville of all places. Luna merely smiled and told her to let Mango do his job, however unnecessary it might be.
For Twilight it was still profoundly awkward to see ponies bowing to her. Luna easily took it in stride, walking around to take her seat on the provided cushion at the head of the table; the hospital likely had no chairs to fit her frame. Despite this, she remained at eye level with the assembled ponies. Luna gave Mango a glance as if to question why he was standing on the table, but she remained silent. Mango leapt off the table and quickly replaced Princess Twilight’s pillow with a chair so that the smaller princess could see over the edge. Applejack grabbed a chair for herself and seated herself next to Twilight.
Mango gave AJ a harsh look but didn’t challenge the mare’s decision to seat herself at the head of the table with the princesses. The guard took up a position in a corner of the room where he could see the entrance and the windows.
“You may be seated,” Luna granted.
“Princess Luna, Princess Twilight,” Paper Stack greeted, “You honor us with your presence. I hope you were not inconvenienced.”
“The timing is most agreeable to us, but we grow concerned that our presence here has disrupted the work you do here,” Luna replied, “We would not wish to take your time away from caring for sick ponies.”
“Princess, I assure you that our quality of care will not be affected,” Paper Stack explained, “A progress review meeting is a normal part of our routine, to ensure patients are being treated in accordance with best practice.”
“Naturally. And are these meetings typically held so late at night?”
“With the twenty-four-hour nature of our work progress review meetings can be held at whatever time is necessary.”
“Verily,” Luna decided not to press the administrator on her obvious half-truth. “You may proceed.”
“Since there are some non-medical ponies present I will remind everypony that any specific information about the patient is considered confidential and should not be disclosed to anypony not involved in her treatment without the permission of the patient and her appointed guardian.” Paper Stack instructed.
After a moment of tense silence, Dr Stone was the first to speak.
“The patient suffered a simple transverse fracture of the cannon bone with displacement and a comminuted fracture to her long pastern.” The unicorn stallion spoke in a monotone, “Injuries were consistent with a high energy impact to her lower left foreleg. I performed a Coltfield-Cooper lateral comparative symmetry relocation. The long pastern needed additional stabilization so a tri-axial mana-guided closed-field internal fixation was executed with a standard pattern seven technique requiring six point three inches of Mythril bio-thaumatic wire and four anchor screws. The operation was successful and the probability of further complications is less than one percent.”
Paperstack managed to pre-empt the inevitable demand from the princess that he ‘speak Equish’ and quickly summarised.
“Her leg was badly broken, but she will make a full recovery,” Paperstack struggled not to roll her eyes in exasperation at the oblivious doctor. “Red Cross, you were the first to see Green, perhaps you can give us a better overview?”
Dr. Cross swallowed nervously and wished he had some papers in front of him to pretend to shuffle.
“‘Green’ is a unicorn filly presenting to the emergency room with confusion, reduced level of consciousness, and a broken foreleg,” The earth pony stallion said, “Witnesses report she was found in the Everfree Forest injured and confused. When we were unable to determine her identity I ordered a muzzle to tail assessment, blood and urine tests, dental X-ray to determine her age, a head CT to rule out brain injury and X-rays to assess her injured leg. The on-call radiologist confirmed there was no brain injury so I referred Green to Dr. Stone in orthopedics.”
“We are unfamiliar with much of what you have described,” Luna queried, “Tell us truly, what was her condition when you first saw her?”
“She was barely conscious, feverish, too confused to answer questions. Her coat was dirty, covered in scrapes and bruises, and her foreleg was badly broken,” Dr. Cross described. “She seemed to be in a great deal of pain but we could not administer any pain relief for fear of masking her neurological symptoms.”
The words stung Luna more than she had expected. She couldn’t help but feel she was somehow responsible. After all, it was her failure to locate the filly that had led to the child’s injury.
“In her dreams, the filly hath let slip to us that ‘twas not the first time she has been injured so.” Luna said bitterly, “What else dist thou find in your assessment?”
“My apologies, your majesty, I found no sign of past injuries,” Dr. Cross admitted, “I can’t say definitively without a skeletal survey, but if she did have a previous fracture it is well healed.”
The gathered ponies were somewhat surprised when Applejack spoke next.
“Beggin’ yer pardon Princess, but are ya sure she meant what she said?” Applejack questioned. “When mah sister an’ her friends found her Green was so out of sorts she couldn’t tell a pony from a Timberwolf.”
“Princess, if I may?” Dr. Azure Light interjected, receiving a nod from Luna before she continued. “I am Green’s Neurologist. On review, I believe that her delirium and short term memory loss were caused by a combination of factors. On admission, her pain, fever, and exhaustion were the proximate cause, but it’s likely that the medications we used to anesthetize her for surgery and later to relieve her pain exacerbated the problem. When we reduced her opiates she became lucid.”
“When the filly spoke with us she claimed to remember nothing of her life before the forest.” Luna questioned, “Surely this implies long term memory loss?”
“Based on what I’ve read from her notes-”
“Have you spoken with ‘Green’?” Luna interrupted.
“My apologies, your majesty,” Azure Light said, “I was due to meet with Green earlier today but she had some form of magical incident that required urgent testing and I was unable to do so.”
Twilight’s eyes lit up with intense curiosity but before she was able to formulate a good question Luna had pushed the conversation on.
The night princess sighed. “Please, continue.”
“From what the information I’ve been able to gather it seems unlikely that her retrograde amnesia has a neurological cause. She could have suffered a psychological trauma that is repressing those memories, but most likely she simply doesn’t want to tell us. This is pending a neurological assessment in pony, but if she’s not cooperative then it will be difficult to get a definitive answer.
“When we spoke she was lucid, though frightened and wary beyond her years,” Luna replied. “She did not mean to tell us about her previous injuries, so we can be sure she was not trying to deceive us. Her attempt to hide it, combined with her general demeanor paint a most troubling picture.
“Oh...” Applejack said, frowning.
“Though she did claim that she did not remember if it was her or… Somepony else, ” The elder princess said. “But that does not leave out the option. Are you certain that you haven’t found any healed injuries?”
“We examined her quite thoroughly, though it wasn’t a forensic investigation,” Dr. Cross explained. “We were looking for anything that was immediately relevant. I haven’t met with her again since her admission,”
“You speak of investigation, but we have to wonder,” Luna asked, “What has been done to investigate her identity?”
“When she was not immediately identifiable I requested a social worker review, as is standard for unaccompanied minors.” Dr. Cross replied. “Dayglow is handling her case, so she would be better able to answer questions relating to that.”
“Understandable.”
“I’m afraid there’s little else I can be of use for,” Without waiting for the Princess to dismiss him, Dr. Cross rose from his seat, earning him a stern glare from Mango. “If there are no further questions I should be getting back to the Emergency department.”
“Very well,” Luna commanded, “We shall not keep you from your work longer than necessary. You may leave us.”
“Your Majesty,” The Earthpony bowed to Princess Luna before turning and bowing to Princess Twilight, “Your Highness.”
“Unfortunately there has been little progress on identifying the filly,” Dayglow lamented, “Initially she was too confused to know what was going on, and now that she’s recovered she’s refusing to answer any questions. She doesn’t match any missing ponies in our archives, and she’s never been admitted to a local hospital, or attended any of the nearby schools. I’ve sent letters to my colleagues in nearby towns and cities, but I haven’t had any positive responses yet.”
“Is this sort of situation common in modern Equestria?” Princess Luna asked
“It’s certainly very unusual in a small town like Ponyville,” Dayglow responded, “But larger cities like Baltimare and Manehattan have their share of runaways and it can take time to identify them if they are uncooperative. In most cases, it all ends up being an overreaction or misunderstanding, and they end up being returned to their parents. You hope for the best in these situations, but it’s our job to prepare for the worst.”
“What is the best hope for Green?” The princess inquired.
“Everything we’ve observed with Green seems to point in a certain direction,” Dayglow explained, “She’s touch-shy, but that could just be skittishness from stress; she is very mistrustful, but we’re all strangers to her so some hesitance is expected; she’s terrified of us finding out who she is, and our assumption is that it’s because she is afraid of being sent home, but we don’t know why she is afraid. Children have trouble evaluating how important something really is; They might break their mother’s fine porcelain and think it’s the worst crime imaginable, that they have to run away from home and keep it a secret from everypony.”
The fluorescent pegasus sighed and looked downcast.
“That’s what I hope is the case,” The mare swallowed, “But the more we learn, the less likely that seems. She’s determined to hide something from us, but when she was recovering from anesthesia she said-”
The mare looked down at Green’s patient notes to read verbatim.
“She remembers a ‘guy’ telling her that he was going to “make her a mare” before being left alone in the forest,” Dayglow looked up. “She didn’t seem to understand what that meant, but the implication is clear.”
The expressions in the room ranged from sickened to vengeful.
“Thankfully, when she was examined, we found no signs of sexual trauma,” She continued. “And at her age, they would not be subtle. So whatever he intended it seems she got away.”
“If this were the case, surely she would tell us.”
“I’m afraid it’s not so simple, your Majesty. In these cases, the perpetrator is usually somepony the victim trusts, and Green didn’t understand what was going on. She most likely feels like she has done something wrong.
When your guards came to interview her she was still delirious but she was cognizant enough to remember that she wasn’t ‘supposed’ to tell us about what happened. She denied that she had ever been touched inappropriately, but she became increasingly distressed and told us we had the wrong idea,” Dayglow growled. “Somepony groomed her. They convinced her that they were the only pony in the world she could trust; then they did something that made her feel so unsafe she had to run away.”
“If she will not tell us, there are other means by which we can extract their names from her mind,” Luna stated with an intense look in her eyes.
“Your Majesty, I urge you to reconsider,” Dr. Azure Light countered. “Using mind magic on children is unpredictable at the best of times, and in Green’s case, some amount of psychological harm is a near certainty. By my oath as a physician I cannot abide in any course of action that would harm my patient, not even to save other fillies from this monster.”
“While I didn’t swear an oath, it is my duty to be an advocate for my client.” Dayglow added, “Green is not a criminal and we must consider her best interests first with any decision we make here. We are trying to build up her trust; if we violate the privacy of her mind she may never feel safe around ponies of authority again.”
“We thank you for your wise counsel,” Luna replied. “It would not do to act rashly in such a delicate situation. With that in mind, I should inform you that I intend to take Green as my ward.”
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Update
"When
O fuck yeah! Finaly the meeting start and the chapter end was worth the waiting! Maybe Green becomes the very first Dreamwalker in her Era that is mortal.
Magnificent chapter. Still a lot need to be addressed.
Her Magical Incident. Her lack of Hoof grip & her extreamly instable emotional state
10182051
I wanted to have it all as one chapter but it was taking such a long time I decided to cut it.
Heh, if she thought Applejack was trouble, what will Green think about being sent off with Luna instead? Even though it were revealed that Applejack is not in fact a walking lie detector, she has definitive proof Luna can do effectively worse even outside physical presence.
Then again, perhaps the intimacy might induce a forced trust? That attitude might shift from "I'm not hiding anything" to "please don't banish me!" in a hurry...
Mango is so serious when on duty. Relax, bro, you're in Ponyville and Tuesday is a few days off yet!
Keep going! ;)
Well now I'm curious as to what twilights question is
10182054
Im not complaining. Literally the best kind of cliffhanger
Ah, I see you're not dead.
Inb4 Green becomes the seventh Element of Harmony, ascends to be an alicorn, is revealed to be a long-lost descendant of Celestia and Luna (don't think about it too hard) and rightful heir to the throne, all while protesting that s/he doesn't deserve any of it. And I wouldn't even mind from this fic
But in all seriousness, this fic has surpassed my expectations and then some. Even without the refreshing twist on a well-worn premise, even without the good character moments and characters, this really just deserves all the props for being an honest-as-can-be view into how the author views himself being shoved into a world of Technicolor ponies. This just can't get enough praise for that.
One thing I've been curious about when it comes to this version of Equestria; are you strictly going to stick to canon and fill in the blanks where there are any or is this going to start delving into AU territory at some point?
>Gets updated
not even one hour later.
>Featured.
I gotta say, your knowledge of the medical world really shines through in this fic and it greatly improves the reading experience. Bravo in that regard! I can't wait to read more.
10182073
Would explain why Luna is absent all the time! She has a foal to raise/protect/groome.
-----Edit:
10182091
Yes you can
-----Edit:
For now forget Green is a displaced. See a foal that went trough the scenario described...
Dont it Boiled you blood? I just replayed this chapter 8 times. The last time with that in mind... Damn! The feeling is overwelming.
I dont feel sorry for the first idiot entiteld Noble that insults Lunas Ward as commen pest picked off the streets.
PANDEMONIUM!!!
Let the Castle shake from Lunas fury. Let the pathedic Nobel soil himself. To be dragged to the Dungeon. Let it be clear to every foalfondler: "If thy find thy sorry flank we will make you beg for mercy that shall never come. The end is nay of thy judgement. YOUR - SENTANCE - SHALL - LAST - ETERNAL !!!"
... ... ... I love it when storys get me so creative~
10182091
I can't remember if it was directly said, or just heavily implied, but the author is a nurse.
Saw the number next to my library change. Hmm. Ooo, Trust Once Lost. Yay!
Such a simple yet perfect sentence.
10182100
Yes, I believe you are correct. The expertise they have really lends itself well to the nature of this story!
awesome chapter, the plot thicken's :D
and oh boy one slip up under drugs and they never let it go xD
Hope COVID-19 hasn't been hurting you.
10182129
Well, not directly, but things at work have gotten much more tense and our stocks of PPE are critically low.
lol 28 people watching at once
Great stuff! Thanks for the chapters.
Intend. So it's not settled yet. While that would be an interesting twist, it would inevitably take Green away from Ponyville, which I think would be to the story's detriment.
This is just so solidly correct on so many more levels than they can even comprehend at the moment.
Didn’t expect that particular bombshell. Green is going to have a weird time of it.
Oh, this is getting very interesting!
And the trainwreck keeps going. I can't look away!
What other issues will arise along the way?
Everyone stare at the author till we learn more!
LOL
"Applejack, uh, I guess you're here too."
"Sure am."
And wow, that's quite the development. I can only imagine what Green will make of this.
10182223
Mango is still sore about the "little one" comment so he announced AJ as "and company".
10182227
Thanks to quarantine we can get more chapters YAY!
10182223
Apparently, the german version of the MLP comic did a less than stellar translation job
i.imgur.com/HSLLINO.jpg
10182265
I'm essential.
10182284
wut... WATT???
Talk about bad wording causing drama.
Okay, that was funny.
Green: silent screaming
Sounds like a Rapunzel type, but we know that's not what's going on.
10182299
Your doing good work
Pretty much all signs point to Green actually being abused in the past and repressing the memories. I would almost be less surprised if this was a story where the human in Equestria isn't really a human at all. Like, most stories have the main character understand the situation completely while other characters don't believe them or don't have the whole picture. Meanwhile, this story seems like the reverse.
“We thank you for your wise counsel,” Luna replied. “It would not do to act rashly in such a delicate situation. With that in mind, I should inform you that I intend to take Green as my ward.”
From previously wanting to just rip the info from her mind, I’d hard no that plan.
All i can think of is mango being the size of twiny.
i dk.
But i think best caretaker for Green is Nurse Redheart!
10182163
Nah... Time for Luna to shine. Finaly a story expaining what she did off screen... Since MLP left our favo Princess out we get a fan solution! HUZZA!!!
Looking Forward To More!
10182202
The Name on the screen hasnt blinked yet... 
I surrender 
Next time - yesss next time 
*stare intensives at Author as requested*
5 minutes later
O.k. ... I give up...
10182265
Pretty sure we could do it even without it
10182284
"O NO!!! The epic facepalm of doom is here! Nooo..."
*a mighty explosion vaporises this ones face*
10182317
Fine - educational guess
10182386
Nice plot twist ha-ha!
10182453
The Paper is the dignity everyone denies him...
10182521
Seen that; Still funny.
Hmm, I'm curious to see if it'll be Luna, AJ, or someone else who takes Green in. Each option has its perks and detriments after all. Also, I'm looking forward to them eventually talking about Green's magical "incident" it may have mostly been looked at as embarrassing by Green. But I'd think the Adults would be more than a bit concerned about the implications of Green never being taught how to use something as simple as her hoof magic. Considering everything else they're worried about regarding her, what with the "grooming" thoughts, that could have some bad implications.
I sure hope that by
"take Green as my ward"
Luna is planning on using her presumably vast resources as co-ruler / very rich pony with lots of staff to ensure Green has proper care.
Not Personally abduct green to sooth some personal guilt over feeling "personally responsible"