Twilight Sparkle stood in the silence of the night, the wind drifting through her mane and feathers. It had been over an hour since she had been standing there, and she was starting to get impatient. This was a life and death situation, and he was taking his sweet time to arrive in Canterlot? It was urgent; she had expected him out of all ponies to realize that.

She had contacted the doctor via mail, telling him to come the night after. When she had mentioned it was a job she believed only he could succeed in completing, and that she would pay however many bits it took, she thought he’d be a little bit quicker than that. This pony would do anything for a few bits.

She only remembered him from Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorns. He was terribly skilled in medical science, even as a foal. It must have been from an amazing surgeon saving his life after an explosion. His body was torn to pieces, but the doctor never gave up on him and rebuilt the colt. He went through so much - brutal rehabilation, his mother dying, his father leaving with another mare - he deserved to be a doctor.

The princess looked up at the clock tower a few blocks away. 10:12. He was an hour and twelve minutes late. He was tardy. Her heart sank. She was sure she was urgent enough in her letter.

“Where is he?” she muttered. “Should I just give up or what? But I don’t want to give up on-”

“I come all this way and you’re already thinking of giving up?” a voice deep and chilled said from behind her. “I expected more from you, Ms. Sparkle.”

Twilight turned around, trying not to trip over the butter yellow dress at her waist. A white Unicorn stallion stood behind her, though the details beyond his scarred, patchwork face and shocked black hair were hidden by the shadows. He had a smirk that made Twilight both a bit more frustrated yet extremely relieved to see him.

“You finally made it,” said Twilight, moving closer to the strange pony. “I thought you decided not to come, Black Jack.”

His smile disintegrated. “I apologize. It was hard convincing Pinoko to stay at the inn while I do this. She thinks I’ll have an affair or the likes.”

Twilight nodded. “Come with me to the castle.”

Black Jack came out of the shadows with a black coat slung over his shoulders, covering most of his body but revealing his hooves in the slightest. A thin red ribbon was knotted loosely around his neck like a shoelace. “Is the patient in the castle?” he asked, his rusty eyes unemotional as always.

“Yes. I’ve been keeping her in bed for the last few days and making sure she doesn’t get out. I’ll explain the symptoms when we get there.”

“Then let’s-” The sound of an unsatisfied child came from nowhere, and Black Jack flipped around to find a young white filly with a yellow shirt and red jumper running to his side.

Black Jack looked confused and angry, while Twilight was just... confused. “Pinoko, what are you doing here? You’re supposed to be at the inn!”

Before Twilight could question if this Pinoko was the same one concerned about affairs, the filly said, “I wanted to find out what you were doing with Pwinchesh Twilight!”

Black Jack sighed, then shot Twilight a face full of embarrassment. Little Pinoko was looking determined to find out why her doctor had been called by the princess, though, and Twilight almost felt a smile reach across her face for a change. But that quickly faded when she remembered the reason they were there in the first place.

“Both of you can come with me, I guess,” Twilight said. Pinoko grinned, and the Alicorn continued hurriedly, “but don’t get so loud or nosy. All right?”

Pinoko’s short red hair bounced with her head.

The three ponies were on their way to the castle, and arrived in no time at all. Twilight glanced at the clock again before trotting inside.

10:30. An hour and thirty minutes off schedule. She was missing her beauty sleep.

It’s not like I’m going to be sleeping much anymore, so it doesn’t matter, she concluded in her mind. After what was happening with her friend, sleep was the last thing on her mind.

Everypony sat quietly at the side of the room, watching Black Jack inspect their friend. The pony on the sunken bed was a sickly pale yellow, with long pink hair that swirled around the pillows. There was so much of it that the doctor finally had to pin it behind her ears to check her temples.

Black Jack was shining a small flashlight into her turquoise eyes. “Her pupils are reacting slower than normal,” he said to himself, but the whole room could hear him anyways. “And she has a severe fever. Has she been having seizures?”

Twilight nodded, fear rising in her eyes as if she was having flashbacks of the past. “They’ve become more and more frequent, and make her ache.”

“How long ago did all of this start?” He brought out his stethoscope and whispered inaudibly to the patient. Twilight wanted so badly to help her, but just responded to him instead. The doctor knew what he was doing.

“Her eyes turned yellow a week ago, then she started feeling tired and had a high fever not soon after. We didn’t know what to do, so we told Princess Celestia and she made us take her to the castle.” She looked over to her mentor, who gave a solemn nod. “We don’t want something bad to happen to Fluttershy, so please help her.”

Pinoko gave a big smile, which seemed to brighten the room. “Doc is the best shurgeon in the world! He’ll shave her no pwoblem,” she reassured Twilight, then glanced worriedly to Black Jack. “You can shave her, wight?”

Black Jack ignored her question and said, “She has yellow fever. It’s usually very easy to tell on a pony’s skin, but since her coat is already yellow, I had to push back some of her fur in order to tell. Her skin is pale yellow, just like the whites of her eyes.” He began writing something on her clinical chart.

A frustrated groan came from the end of the room, and Dash looked like she would start kicking herself. “No wonder we couldn’t tell! Horsefeathers!” she cried, then looked at Black Jack with concern. “Can you save her?”

The doctor shrugged like it was a casual decision. “It depends.” He gazed down at Fluttershy, who was wheezing helplessly with every struggled breath. “Do you want to be saved?”

Her head moved up and down ever so slightly. Determination shone in her bloodshot eyes. Black Jack smiled genuinely for the first time that night, and brought his rusty gaze across each of the ponies in the room, reading them.

A princess with the bravest face he had seen from her ever since Celestia’s school. A white unicorn blinking away her own tears and shuddering. A blonde mare with eyes filled with all sorts of emotion. A gloomy mare with dark magenta hair streaming over her face. A dragon huddled against Twilight’s legs, his claws wrapping around her like a stuffed toy. And a pegasus with rainbow hair that opposed against her monotone personality, though her eyes raged with passion. They lined up against the pale walls, unsure of what to do anymore.

“I’ll perform the surgery three days from now. I have every confidence that your friend will be back to proper health,” he finally said. Everypony’s face in that room seemed to shine a little bit brighter.

Twilight walked up to him with shaking hooves. “We’ll pay whatever’s needed. Price is no object when you live in a castle, doctor.” The humor was strained in her voice.

“2,000,000 bits, then,” he said, then began gathering his supplies without even looking at it. “In the meantime, I’m going to have to talk to each of you individually.”

Twilight bit her lip. Why would he need to talk to them? Was there something wrong, and he suspected they did something? He wasn't a detective. It was a bit suspicious. “Alright...”

He gave her a stern nod and pulled the black coat on over his back. “Let’s go, Pinoko.”

“Don’t worry, Pwinchesh!” the small redhead sang as she hurried out the door. At least she was in high spirits.

Author's Note

I'm not sure many people have heard of Black Jack. It was a manga of the 70s and 80s, and an anime multiple times until current time. Not as popular as other animes in America at least, but he's still big in Japan. Hehe.

I don't own Black Jack or Pinoko, Tezuka Osamu does. All I did was make them ponies. :)