Life's Left Hook

You clench your gut.

You need to head to the hospital, no doubt.

But you can't cast any suspicion. Not yet.

Not until you've thought all of this through.

You tripped, fell, and landed on... Something.

Now isn't the time for intricate details.

You hobble out of the room, and make your way to your own.

You swing the door open, and...

Welp, it looks like you've walked in on some sort if heated argument.

Octavia and Cadance are glaring at each other, their voices elevated.

However, they both come to a dead hault upon seeing you hobble into the room, your arm on your gut and blood coming out of your mouth.

"Anonymous?!"

"By the stars!"

They both rush over to you, and check you over to see what's wrong.

"Anon?! What happened?! Did someone kick you?!"

"Sweet Celestia, you need to go to the hospital!"

They talk at the same time, and you can barely make out their words between the confusion and the pain.

"Fell... Landed on somethin'... I need to go to the hospital. Fast," you say, barely able to grunt the sentences out.

Suddenly, you're swooped off of your feet.

You land on Octavia's firm back, and she immediately kicks open the door and starts galloping.

Cadance follows close behind, using her magic to keep you safe on Octavia's back.

Soon, they find their way out the door, and they wave over a chariot.

Fuck, this hurts.

With every movement, your guts churn, and you want to puke.

But you're afraid of doing so — you might just lose your stomach.

Soon, a chariot finds its way to you.

Octavia loads you in the back, and Cadance hops in the front.

"316 Multrod Lane. Take us to Dr. Aperta Cuore. With haste," she says to the cab driver, handing him a sack of bits.

Almost instantly, you take off at incredible speeds.

Thankfully chariot traffic wasn't too bad — most everyone walked around here, and seldom was there a crash.

But chariots were bumpy as hell, and your guts didn't like it in the slightest.

Cadance turns to face you, grabbing your attention.

"I'm taking you to the royal doctor. Well, the de facto royal doctor, that is She's an immigrant from Itailia. Best doctor I've ever seen in my time, and she has some of the most advanced equipment Equestria has to offer."

You're a little enlightened, and feel a little more confident.

But it still hurts like hell.

"Th-Thanks... I didn't know I merited this much of a rescue... Heh..."

"You deserve it, Anonymous. And don't worry about the bill. I'll tell Aunt Celestia what happened."

You nod, and rest your head back.

Please, for the love of everything that is pony, let this chariot ride end...

Finally, you get a godsend.

You arrive, and Octavia hauls you out of the chariot and into the ER.

Cadance follows, and trots up to the desk.

"We need to see Dr. Aperta Cuore, as soon as possible. We have a very important human on our hands that could be bleeding internally."

A dark brown mare with a dark blue mane looks up at Cadance.

"Understood. I'll contact her. She just got done casting a filly — I'll let her know you're coming back."

"Down the hall, to the left," she says, nodding.

"Thank you," Cadance says, motioning for Octavia to follow.

You're dragged along to the back, and after what seems like an eternity of resting on that hard back, you make your way into the ER.

A stallion with casts on all 4 of his legs manages to hobble out like a penguin on your way in, and the violet-coated doctor looks at your little trio with astonishment, her horn glowing to clean off the mess on her operating table.

"Princess Cadance!" she says, looking both excited, happy, and... Shocked, upon seeing you.

"Oh, mios dio," she says, looking at you. "Vhat is it now?"

Her accent.

It's adorable.

"We've had an accident," Cadance says, gesturing to you. "He's... Slipped. He may have ruptured something. I'm not certain — I'm not a doctor."

By now, the doctor had lit up her horn and placed you on the operating table.

"Ugh. A shame ve have to meet under such dire circumstances. But, I suppose now isn't ze time to catch up."

All this time, she was getting ready, and soon, she turns to you.

"You are a... Human, sí?"

"Th-That's.... That's right... Ugh..."

You clasp at your gut, trying not to groan in pain.

"Mr. Anonymous. A pleasure to finally see you in person, rather zhen in ze newspapers," she mutters, grabbing a few tools and moving right back to you.

Cadance and Octavia stand by, watching as the doctor does her work.

The doctor goes along, doing a series of tests, most of which involving that freezing cold stethoscope against your belly.

She said she was only making a fair assumption that human anatomy was similar to that of a pony's, since she had nothing else to go by.

And, after some time, she made some conclusions.

"3 broken ribs, a stomach ulcer, possibly a ruptured spleen, and vone hell of a bruise," she says, looking at you.

"It's probably vise to get your spleen removed and ze mess cleaned up, just in case."

"Oh... Yikes? How long will that take? 'Cause we have—"

"Oh, apologies. I didn't mean vhat I said as a suggestion. I'm going to knock you out or you might die."

Well, that's certainly one way to put it.

"Uhm... O-Okay..."

"I'm fairly certain I'll be able to find out vhat is vhat. I've had more than a few dissections in my day, Mr. Anonymous."

She looks at Cadance for a moment, and then back at you.

"I'm... Fairly confident I can help."

That sounded like a bit of a fabrication, but you'll take what you can get.

"O-Okay... Will it hurt?"

"Vhen you vake up."

Christ this doctor was blunt.

"Uh... Okay..."

"Now, sit back, relax, and I'll set up ze IV. Princess, and... Octavia?"

The doctor blinks.

"Hmm. Vell, you can vait in ze vaiting room vhile I vork."

Cadance lets out a light sigh.

"Any guess as to how long this will take?"

The doctor thinks for a moment, and then looks back at Cadance.

"Three hours. It's fairly simple, by my standards, but I'm on a foreign field."

Cadance nods. "Understood. Thank you so much. And we're so sorry to trouble you with this mess."

"Any time, Princess. Buonasera," she says as the two walk out the door.

And, before you know it, you're hooked up to an IV with little instruments monitoring your everything.

You see the doctor grab a small vial of... stuff... From the fridge.

She hooks it up to the IV, and immediately, you feel a weight on your chest.

Suddenly, you wake up.

What the hell?

Did the drugs not work?

You don't think they did.

You only passed out for no longer than a moment.

"Oooh, but I'm not finished! You vouldn't believe vhat happened next!"

That was the doctor, all right.

Even though your head was a bit laggy.

"It turns out ze bleeding vas caused by a gas bubble ze size of a grapefruit! He — He tried to—"

Before the doctor can finish her sentence, she bursts out laughing, grabbing her sides.

"Vhen he finally pushed it out, ve had to quarantine ze operating room, it vas so bad! Dust -- EVERYVHERE!"

You hear Cadance burst out laughing at the horrible story, and she continues.

"And he got that way because of?"

"Indeed! His friend's vaccum!"

Holy shit that sounded scary.

You cringe a little, and you groan.

The two torn to you, their ears perked.

"Hmm! Look who finally came to," the doctor says, trotting over to you.

"Excellent news. I vas able to remove your spleen and fix you up! But, bad news!"

Wait, why did she sound so excited?

"You're missing one kidney, your appendix, part of your liver, and a lot of blood. They needed to be removed because of damage."

A feeling tells you this is bullshit, but you don't object.

"Don't expect to do anything more strenuous than a valk for some time. No running, no heavy lifting, no dancing, no... Erm..."

"I guess you vouldn't have that problem, since you aren't... Egh. You get ze point."

"And keep drama to a minimum. Anything stressful at all isn't going to help. Please, be vary. You could hemmorhage if it's too strenuous, and I'll be Celestia knows how far away."

Might as well write your last will and testament now.

You sigh a little, and grunt at the pain in your gut.

At least it wasn't as bad as before...

"Th-Thanks, doc." you say, sitting up.

She helps you up, and nods.

"Mmmhmm. Anything you need.Now, you should be set to leave. Just hop in a vheelchair and I'll steer you out."

Cadance interrupts. "We need to go with haste. Our train departs for Detrot in forty-five minutes."

You sigh internally.

"Well, we'd best get going."

With the help of the doctor, you step out of bed and into the wheelchair she brought out.

After a short roll through the hospital and out the door, you meet Octavia outside and wave goodbye to the doctor after you get off of your wheelchair.

Cadance wastes no time finding another chariot while Octavia catches up with you.

"Anonymous, are you going to be okay?" she asks, a hoof prodding your thigh.

You look down at her.

"I'll live. I think."

It's really depressing how that's an honest answer.

She frowns, and looks up at you with arched eyebrows.

"How bad is it?"

You sigh.

"She took out a bunch of shit, and now I can't do anything for a month. Nothing strenuous."

She looks down at the ground for a moment, until a chariot comes rolling around the corner.

You all turn and hop inside, albeit with some difficulty.