Chapter 3

A Doctor Calls

By the time the doctor arrived to Willow Springs farm, accompanied by Apple Turnover's father; Champlain Apple, who on being informed that his son was injured had left to collect the local doctor, Turnover and Melissa had discussed and decided on a plan for what they would do during the doctor's examination. If the doctor asked Melissa, who was in control of Turnover's body, to do anything physical; if it was something she could do already like raising, walking, talking, the best thing to do in that situation was to comply. If it was something Melissa could not do, or had not yet experienced, then they'd apologize and blame fatigue from the whole experience. If they required answering any questions or prompts from the doctor, Melissa would let Turnover dictate their answer through her, no matter how stuttered or weird the answer may end up sounding.

Melissa requested to Turnover to allow her to walk around the room for a bit to finally get use to the experience of walking on all fours while awaiting the arrival of the doctor, which Turnover wasn't opposed to. At the same time, Melissa had also wanted to try and at least get more answers to the questions she had that she could not ask Turnover, the questions which would reveal she was not of this universe.

Off to the side of the bedroom, standing flush against the wall and beside a window was a bookcase, filled with many books of different thicknesses. What confused Melissa looking at the spines of these books was the weird language it was all written in, but what confused her more was that she could read and understand the words? Taking a gambit that surely, like on Earth, this world at least had different languages spoken, she asked Turnover about the confusing development. 'Turnover, you have an absolute ton of books here... but I gotta ask, how can I read the titles of these? It's no language I'm familiar with!' to which Turnover replied, delayed by a short chuckle at the sound of Melissa's amazement at being able to read this language.

“Well, Ah was born an' raised in a land where we speak Ponish. Ah'd say as a dragon, you might'en not come across this before. But, if Ah were to guess, Ah'd reckon since this is my brain, you're reading it 'cause I know the lingo. If it were in dragon lingo, then you'd might'en know what each character is but Ah couldn't make head or tail!” to which Melissa confidently doubted, but still it seemed that Turnover was under the impression Melissa was a dragon, and this was a aspect of the situation that Melissa accepted wholly, as it was most likely the closest analogue to being an earthly-human.

Melissa's gambit on attempting to learn more about this land involved reading a random book from the bookshelf, and scanning over the titles, a lot of the books were cooking books, books on different pastry recipe collections. Knowing what she presumed to knew of Turnover, she guessed Turnover's interest in the books were only for the recipes involving apples. Towards the lower shelves were books on more miscellaneous items. Included among them was a small hard-back book 'History of Mare in the Moon Age Mareyland'. This she felt confident would be the one to answer a few questions. It seemed to combine basic history with basic geography at the least.

Then she realized...all the time she had been in this body, Melissa had never attempted to grab a hold of anything. Never attempted at taking and moving something. She froze a moment, her mind buzzing frustrated thoughts now, opposed to the anxiety inducing thoughts of when she first awoke to this situation. She was beginning to grow tiresome of the different functionalities of this body she was thrust into.

“Hmm, Ah think, when you get all in one of these states where your thoughts take over, Ah can hear 'em too.” Turnover commented, breaking through the swarm of frustrated thoughts, before continuing in a jestful, playful tone “An' Ah think Ah know what got you all fuzzled. Never had to pick up anything with hooves have you? A'right, Lesson 2 of being a pony comin' right up!” well, Melissa was happy to sense that Turnover was in a lighter mood trying to mentor this inexperienced being foreign to his body, but what he said about racing thoughts breaking through to be audible to him too, Melissa had to be careful with not letting her emotions cause a chain-reaction of uncontrolled thoughts from now on. Thankfully Turnover seemed like a capable hand... or hoof? In staving off floods of overwhelming emotion, and looking on the bright-side of the situation, it was better that she ended up with a pony like Turnover, than somebody who was less patient, or understanding, and in the same way welcoming to this invasive presence.

In reply to Turnover offering a brand new lesson of pony-101, Melissa giggled back to her mind room-mate's jest and replied 'I'd love to know how... uh, you don't mind me having a read of this? Might help me get my bearings better to where I ended up'. She had pointed to the book in question she wanted to pick up, which to an outside perspective must have looked weird as just a pony pointing in silence, alone, to a single book on a bookshelf... she hoped the doctor wouldn't walk through the door at this point.

“No harm Ah suppose to help you get your bearings. Right, holding onto things as a pony... you know how you can talk to me by thinkin' that a thought needs to be heard by me? 'Least... that's how Ah can end up talking to you! It's much like that. Think about wanting to pick up that book, and let our body's instinct do the rest!” the explanation seemed simple enough, but in this universe it worked so differently to how it did in Melissa's own. As with getting to grips with walking, getting to grips with using these hooves would take some getting use to, some training up of muscle memory like she had been doing by pacing the room for walking. But Melissa made her first attempt none-the-less, focusing thought on picking up that book by the spine. For a moment, it was successful, dragging the book back from the shelf, then into the air attached only to her hoof. The excitement of her success broke her concentration of thought of wanting to hold the book, and at that moment, it thudded softly to the floor below her. “Ah shoot” she said out loud.

By the time she had focused long enough to carry the book onto the bed with her, and get herself laying down, that is the time the doctor called.

Alongside the doctor entering into Apple Turnover's bedroom was Turnover's father, back from accompanying the doctor to the house, and letting out a sigh of relief as he saw his son sat on the bed, at least seemingly awake and not looking visibly injured from the explosion as Madam Beets had described seeing it.

Champlain Apple's stature was a confirmation of Melissa's guess that while Apple Turnover had his mother's body, Lobo Apple had Champlain's body, as Champlain was smaller than his young son already, though not by much, and had a very capable looking strong figure. His coat was a more vibrant shade of green than Turnover's tail, mixed with a hint of yellow, like how a green apple was expected to look. Most of his mane was covered by a brown Stetson hat, complete with a black belt circling it's crown, but peaking from underneath it and colouring the entirety of his tail was a dis-coloured orange-y straw colour, probably closest to what a human could call auburn.

Champlain had let the doctor into the bedroom, and stood at the door's threshold to give the doctor room to perform her examination, but this left Melissa unable to see the patriarch's cutie mark, and if it conformed to the Apple family name and was related to apples in some form.

The doctor however was a completely different story for Melissa to soak in seeing. For one, this pony had wings! At the time, they were closed up, laying plastered to the sides of the pony, but the difference in material and texture from fur to feather was impossible to not notice for Melissa.

Okay so we had ponies who could potentially perform magic, and we have ponies with wings. Many questions floated in Melissa's confused state, but remembering how Turnover warned how he could hear when Melissa's thoughts were racing, she did her best to calm herself and ignore this matter for the moment. And any way, she had to perform in front of this doctor now for her examination. Turnover chipped in quickly as the doctor began her approach to her patient, stating “Remember our plan Melissa, do what you're comfortable with, say you can't because you're tired to things you ain't comfortable with, and let me handle any talking” to which Melissa replied with a succinct mental 'got it'.

“How. Are. You. Doing. Today. Mister Turnover” the doctor began, punctuating every word in a cheery song-like salutation as she walked up towards Melissa and Turnover's shared body. “I hear you came into some trouble at the farm, do you feel hurt anywhere?” the doctor continued. Matching Champlain, the doctor was also wearing a hat, this a cream boaters hat rather than a Stetson. Her physique was similar to Champlain's and Lobo's, smaller in size than Turnover, but the doctor looked sleeker than the father and daughter, probably on account of the pony having wings, a sleeker figure being better to fly with. Her coat was darker grey in colour, with a white stripe running from her muzzle up between her eyes and under the cap she donned, while her wings were peppered with white spots. Even though Melissa could not see the doctor's hair underneath the hat, her exposed tail taught Melissa that her mane was likely to be the same shade of bright sky blue as her tail was.

“Hey doc... Hmm can't say Ah'm feeling much pain... Just mighty tired is all” Melissa copied from what Turnover dictated to her, completing the sentence with a half-than convincing yawn.

“Well either way, I've only heard of what happened from a pony, told by another pony, who only witnessed what happened. So can you tell me in your own words Mister Turnover? What happened to you?” the doctor pressed further, still presenting a kind and patient tone with a smile and a swing of her head side to side as she recounted the chain of ponies that her knowledge of the situation came from.

“Ah can't tell you much... of that either honest to... Celestia?” Okay, Turnover, you'll have to tell me who Celestia is, if you are gonna use her name... in vein like the JC or the big G even. Urgh, maybe this book will hold that answer too. But we must continue, internalized Melissa at that hiccup in proceedings “Ah... All Ah can tell you Doc, is I was collectin' some apples, then boom, bright white light and before Ah knew it, Ah was on my back!”

“Okay well, as for the explosion that was seen... that'll be to other local ponies to check out, the local chapter of pegasi who control the weather will want to be by, make sure you lock your mother away for that, heh-heh” the doctor giggled. Clearly there was some sort of prior engagement between these pegasi, the winged ponies Melissa pieced together, who monitored the weather? Like meteorologists? And the family's matriarchal figure. Seemed like a question that Melissa could finally ask Turnover, and one he can divulge with pleasure.

The doctor continued unabated by the inaudible internalizations of Melissa “still, if that explosion landed you on your back, we should have a check there for damage. And I don't see any singeing on your body, but could you roll over for me, I'll need to check your underside and your hooves for any damage.”

'Yeah, I can do those Turnover, I got this' Melissa confidently proclaimed in thought to Apple Turnover, as the doctor pegasus rounded the bed before softly placing her hooves on the pony-Turnover's back and explaining “Just give me a holler if this hurts at any time, okay?” and began to press differing parts of the back, whatever noises, or lack of noises, were being produced by these different presses and prods by the surprisingly dexterous hooves of the doctor, didn't seem to be producing any more concerns to the pegasus, and in time she asked for Melissa to flip the body of Turnover over for examining of the underbelly.

Moving from a laying down position seemed to be a simple task for Melissa to accomplish with this inexperienced bodily control of hers, it felt like one of the things she held most confidence in when moving the body of Turnover, more so than walking which was only now becoming a thing she had confidence in. A simple flip over, and Melissa was presenting the belly of Turnover to the doctor, all four legs elevated into the air above her, but resting and folded, not out-stretched like some fainted-goat.

In quick succession, the doctor had a thorough look at the fur throughout the underside of Turnover's body, for the singed fur that the doctor had indicated, and taking a hold of each hoof to inspect for singeing and damage there, before finally returning to placing her hoofs on Turnover's underside and repeating the instruction “And again, if you feel any sort of pain, do tell me, okay” before proceeding to press and prod again across the body, with much the same results.

At the end of the inspection, the doctor pulled away from the bedside, turned to face Champlain, who was still standing at the doorway of the bedroom, and reported back to him “Well, I can find no injuries, no damage, no tenderness, in your boy Mister Apple. I'd say he's mighty lucky! The whole shock of the sudden explosion probably got him disorientated and drained his energy. A fair night's sleep and he should be all good tomorrow. Now, if anything changes, you know where I'm based in the area, and if you can't find me there, head to the post-office and one of the delivery-ponies will know where I am and inform me.”

“Ahh, well that's fantastic to hear, just superb! Thanks for comin' to have a look at our boy anyhow Rapid.” Champlain finally spoke in front of Melissa, and she could tell where the southern drawl that Turnover and Lobo had came from, obviously from the father's side of the family. “But t'is mighty confusin' this explosion here. Don't you worry, I'll be in contact with the weather ponies soon.” Champlain concluded as he stepped aside to allow the doctor out of the room.

“Yeah, and I'll be sure to tap my cousin Windy to see what she knows about all this. Best of luck Mister Apple” the doctor, who at the parting moments with Melissa revealed her name to at least be partly “Rapid”, surely a noun would follow that for her full name? If Melissa understood naming conventions right.

After letting Doc. Rapid past, the name Melissa would be assigning to this pony until knowing their full name, Champlain stepped into the bedroom for the first time since he arrived back home, where Melissa could now see that indeed, Champlain's cutie mark was straight-up just an apple! A particularly red one, though framing it in a diamond shape were four shape-hugging triangles in silver. “Oh what are we gonna do with you Turnover, boy!” Champlain began in jest as he walked over towards the body of his son. “Don't you go all hero like this was asking somethin' of you, you can't be becoming the next Cousin Applejack you hear? Ending up cozied up to the Princess and all!”

Following the dictation of Turnover still, Melissa responded to Champlain by saying “Ahh, Ah wouldn't dare even think about doing that pa'!... Ah'm sorry pa', but Ah need some rest, can ya leave me be... oh an' tell the rest of the family the same please.” And with an understanding nod and a smile, pa' Champlain turned around, exited the room, and shut the door behind him.

“Ya did great there Melissa! Ah think we're somewhat becoming natural at this now... sad to say... but let's hope we can get some answers soon!” Turnover congratulated in Melissa's mind-space, however with the sentiment dipping at the mention at that at least for the while, this was their new normal, but a cheery belief to cap off the message. Melissa could only make this body of her's smile at the sentiment, the commanding thought that she had done well in piloting this body and copying Turnover's words, and more gratefulness that she had landed with somebody like Turnover.

Melissa turned her head towards the book she picked out from the bookshelf before the doctor's examination began, and still filled with positive energy from the congratulations, excitedly but quietly asked aloud to Turnover “shall we get started on this book then?”

Author's Note

I have to admit with this chapter, while I was writing the character description for Doc. Rapid, I quickly fell in love with the design for her that was in my head. I'm kinda considering making her my pony-sona, but my overthinking brain raises some arguments;

Against ;- Doc. Rapid doesn't feel personal enough to represent myself.

For ;- Doc. Rapid is personal enough because it's a detailed character I created that I enjoy.

Against ;- is it weird for me to take a character of my own fic as my main sona?

For ;- I don't see why I couldn't if I enjoy the concept of the character. I can always give her slight tweaks.

What do y'all say? Can a fic author adopt one of their characters as a sona? And I'm specifically talking fic to sona, and not authors who self-insert their own sonas into a fic!

Thank you for continuing to read this fic of mine!