[MLP:SiM] Sick Day Ch 3 [old]

Sick Day Chapter 3
By Tumultuous

First posted at: http://boards.4chan.org/mlp/thread/19789936#p19922920

[Viewpoint Shift]
>You are Lord Anonymous, First Enforcer of Her Royal Highness, Empress Nightmare Moon.
>And you still feel like crap.
>A slightly different kind of crap than from when you woke up, though, since your symptoms seems to be shifting around a bit.
>It's easier to use your eyes to look at things, and you can just about breathe through one nostril.
>You're even able to talk with barely any pain or discomfort!
>Of course, that's balanced out by the still sore throat preventing you from swallowing and making the coughing much more unpleasant than you think they really need to be.
>Your bleary-eyed, slightly hard of hearing self chooses to call this a net "meh".
>It isn't long before Octavia knocks on your door, medical pony in tow.
>You hear a brief exchange on the other side of the door before Octavia opens the way to walk inside and present the pony she went out to get.
>"Lord Anonymous, I've returned, and brought with me Doctor Panacea!" announces Octavia, with a bit more of a flourish than strictly necessary.
>The medical mare seems very hesitant to follow Octavia in, doing nothing but staring at you for several seconds.

>She's probably scared of getting too close to "The Beast".
>Heh. Even when you feel sick enough to lose a fight with anything bigger than a weiner dog, you can still intimidate.
>On the other hand, you'd rather not have the one providing medical care to you be too frightened to get near you in the first place.
>You'll get enough enjoyment of the ponies' nervousness when you're back on your daily patrol, or if you have another day when you decide to be pointlessly mean to your pets.
>You definitely remember ordering them some medical attention last time, but you weren't /too/ hard on them.
>There wasn't anything more than minor scrapes and bruises, at least.
>Better safe than sorry, right?
>Anyway, sadistic urges tend to be satisfied pretty quickly with you.
>You're nowhere near Nightmare Moon levels.
>All you have to do is make sure that the pet, slave, or prisoner you're working your annoyances out on have some cursory knowledge of how their Empress does things, and they're immediately thankful to be under your comparitively gentle ministrations.

>You start to wonder how long you and the doctor have been staring at each other.
>Her, in fear at being put to work on, and in the same room as what is no doubt an object of terror to her.
>You, out of the daze that comes from having just woken up sick.
>Your personal attendant seems to be perfectly content just standing off to the side of the proceedings just watching as things unfold, looking to see what the green-coated newcomer will do.

"Come inside." you say, gesturing with your hand.
>"Wha- Oh! Yes sir! Sorry sir!" the green-coated mare says with a start, then walks in the room to stand in front of you.
>"Uh... Like Octavia mentioned, my name is Doctor Panacea, and I'm here to perform a Generalized Healing treatment on you so you can be back at full health right away."
>She says that like it's a well-practised speech.
>You suppose it's helping her to control her nervousness, at least.
>You take the opportunity to glance at her cutiemark.
>A beaker pouring water onto a red cross.
>Seems appropriate, at least.
>"Before I begin, do you have any questions about the proceedure?"
>You tilt your head forward and squint a bit, trying to grab onto a thought that's been buzzing around your mind for a little while.
"Now that you mention it, I do. If you can just magically cure illnesses like this, then why does anyone get sick at all? It's a basic question to ask, but I'm not exactly from around here." you say, trying to both talk to her to make her relaxed enough to do her job and get an answer for that niggling bit of curiosity that you have.
>It's a good question.
>On the one hand, it makes sense for magic to be used in medicine as just another tool, but on the other, why did they develop a medical care system that you can recognize in the first place if they have such an easy shortcut?

>The reminder of how foreign you were to this world seemed to make her more nervous, not less.
>After gulping hard, Panacea answers your question.
>"The... Generalized Healing treatment is a sort of cure-all that was made to heal a pony of any illnesses they might have. It's very potent, but only a few unicorns know the spell, or even have the ability to cast it. It also takes a lot of energy to do, so after casting it, the doctor is usually drained almost enough to become a patient themselves. Magical exhaustion is usually easier to treat than whatever the patient had in the first place."
"I see. One more thing. Octavia," the cellist perks up and looks at you, "when you were on your way out to get the doctor," you incline your head to Panacea "you mentioned something about being second only to Nightmare Moon. What does that have to do with anything?"
>Octavia blinks, then realizes what you're asking.
>"Oh, that. Generalized Healing treatments are only done in rare situations. Most of the unicorns who can perform the spell work in large hospitals, and expending all of their energy and becoming exhausted like that is usually too much of  a loss in productivity for large hospitals to deal with, especially when the one doing that is normally responsible for seeing to so many patients. Only the wealthy can afford to pay those doctors for both the procedure and their recovery time, so it's not something that happens very commonly. It's almost always easier for the patient to just get standard medical care."
>You guess that makes sense.
>Nodding, you move your attention back to Panacea, who seems to have taken that time to calm down and get herself under control.

"Okay then, *cough*, let's get this over with. Panacea?"
>"Hmm? Oh, yes. First, I need to get a rough idea of what your symptoms are. It's just a formality for this treatment, but it will help in case you need other medical care later on." she says, as she opens her small kit to bring out her tools.
>It looks like she finds it a bit relaxing to put herself back into a routine.
>"Now, could you bend over a bit, open your mouth, and say "ahh", please?" she asks, as she pulls out a tongue depressor.
>You comply, eager to get rid of this cold sooner, rather than later.
>The look of fear on her face and the steps backwards the doctor took tells you that you might have bent over a bit too fast.
>The sight of the Beast bringing it's open mouth full of sharp, meat-eating teeth towards a pony is something that was apparently something frightening to her.
>If you were more observant, you might have noticed Octavia hiding a gloating smirk behind her professional body language at Panacea's clear unease with the situation.

>A moment is all it takes for the physician to get over that momentary unease and get to work, checking for inflammation in your throat and asking you questions on your other symptoms.
>"You started feeling sick just this morning, correct?"
"Yeah, but I was feeling a bit more tired than usual yesterday night", you squeeze out.
>"Were you out in the cold, or engaging in..." she searches for a diplomatic way of putting this ""recreational activities" with your... pets?"
>There's the unease of someone trying to walk across eggshells that you're starting to associate with her.
"No, actually. I was feeling extra-tired, so I sent them all to their own rooms for the night." hey, sometimes a man just needs some time to relax in solitude. "I figured I'd use the time to get to sleep a little early and feel fresh in the morning."
>Not exactly how things turned out, but hey, you gave it your best shot.
>"I see." She seems to be a tiny bit more relaxed now, and nods her head. "This looks like just a minor cold to me. This shouldn't take long. Please sit still while I perform the spell, Lord Anonymous. I'll need full concentration for this, and the actual casting time on the patient takes about a minute." she says while charging up and beginning the preliminary stages of the incantation.
>Sitting back, you swallow to get the taste of the tongue depressor out of your mouth.
>You'll be very glad once the stabbing needles in your throat get blunted.
>You take a look at Panacea, who seems to be in deep concentration, with her eyes closed and her horn glowing.
>You think she might be muttering something just barely under her breath, but you can't be sure.
>Octavia seems to be very interested in what's happening, though she's always careful to keep at a reasonable distance away.
>It looks like she wasn't kidding about this procedure being performed only rarely.

>Back to Panacea, you can see the glow from her horn gradually spreading to encompass the rest of her body, and you think you might be hearing a slight hum starting to build up.
>The glow is now all around her body, and it's getting a bit brighter.
>The muttering you heard earlier has gotten a bit louder.
>So has the background hum from the magic overcharge, for that matter.
>Octavia leans in slightly, feeling the tension in the room winding up.
>Wait... something about what you're doing here doesn't seem right.
>It's almost like you're forgetting something.

>Suddenly, Panacea opens her eyes long enough to take a glance at you and blasts her horn at your chest, so that the magic can effectively suffuse your body.
>You feel a warm glow at the point the magic ray impacted your body, but it doesn't really spread.
>The glow doesn't spread on your body beyond a circle roughly the size of your palm.
>Observing this, you quirk an eyebrow and point your head towards the glowing pony, who continues pouring all the magic towards you that she can muster.
>She doesn't seem to react, though, so you assume it's all working according to plan.
>It's probably best to just sit here, close your eyes, and enjoy the healing vibes.

>You're almost certain it's been a minute by this point, but you don't feel any different.
>The light and warm glow hasn't spread even a little bit, and you still have all the symptoms as before you started this.
>You've actually been trying to hold back a cough for the last little while.
"*Cough* *cough*"
>Welp, scratch that.
>There goes the "be still" plan.
>It doesn't seem to shake the doctor out of her casting, though.
>She seems to be getting a little confused about why this isn't working.
>thatmakes2ofus.jpg
>The medically suggested correct course of action, apparently, is to just keep zapping you with more magic.
>Seems legit.
>You let her keep on doing her thing while you glance at Octavia to see what she's up to.
>Octavia seems to be just alternatingly glancing at you and Panacea with a thoughtful look on her face, like she knows the answer to a question, but just can't seem to remember it.

>After another half a minute, the strain on Panacea is obvious.
>Her face looks like she's been trying to hold her breath for too long, her head is drooping down a bit, and her shoulders seem tense.
"Panacea? Panacea, I don't think it's working. You can stop the spell."
>She drops the spell, sagging heavily, taking deeper breaths, and barely managing to stay on her now-shaky hooves.
>Wait. That's it.
>That was magic. Magic can't affect you.
>You'd slap yourself for forgetting about it, but you're not exactly firing on all cylinders today, so you'll forgive yourself.
>Damn. You got your hopes up and everything.

"Magic can't affect me. I forgot About that."
>"Whu- hh... huh?" pants the confused and exhausted unicorn.
"The magic. The spell. It won't work on me." you state as you get up from the bed.
>As you get up, you notice Panacea try to take a step backward again, just like last time, but her drained state causes her to misstep and fall to her rump.
>You expect her to get over this in just a second, like the last time she did it, but her face keeps on growing into a horrified expression.
>A glance at Octavia from the corner of your eye is enough to see that she doesn't seem too bothered, but she also doesn't seem all that happy at how things went.
>Hard to read her when you're off your game like this.
>Your eyes switch back to looking at your would-be physician, who you can assume has been in more dignified positions before.
>Okay, it was kind of funny at first, but you're getting tired of this pony always being so scared of you.
>You don't feel like being nice anymore, but you also don't give enough fucks to be mean about anything.
>Screw this, you just want to get back to sleep.
>It's probably a good idea to have your pets checked to see if they've caught whatever you did.

"You." you say, pointing to the mare on the ground, "Go check on my pets to see if they're sick."
>You walk around your bed and move towards your bathroom, intent on getting a glass of water in you before you shelter back under the covers.
>"Sorry sir. Yes sir."
>You're not really listening.
>As you return from the bathroom, glass of water in hand, you can't help but notice that the yellow-maned pony is still in your room getting her things in order.
>Octavia is watching this scene with what you think is mild amusement in her eyes.
>"Master?" she says with a look in your direction.
"Hmm?" you respond.
>"If it's alright with you, I can supervice Doctor Panacea here, to make sure she's able to do the checkups you requested. We'll then come back to make our report."
"Sure. Do that. See to it that she gets to all the pets, then I want both of you back here to give me a status update."
>"Understood."
>With both mares now moving to carry out your orders, you turn your attention back to your bed, not catching the look your attendant was giving to the other mare.

>You finish your water a few moments after they close the door to your room.
>For all it hurt to swallow, you were still fairly thirsty.
>Wincing enough to close your eyes, you fail to notice the other presence in the room as it approaches you.

>"Ogre."