Episode 18: Dr. Whooves on the Daily Show

At his age Jon couldn't really handle hard sessions of cardio and was usually advised to jog rather than run. If it wasn’t his legs than it would be his heart which wouldn't be able to withstand such strenuous effort, so he was told to not push himself too hard which out of all the orders a doctor ever gave him he gladly obeyed.

When his physician told him to cut out fatty foods with loads of preservatives or high protein content he argued and snuck in snacks behind his wife’s back. And when he was advised to help by using a daily note pad to check his pulse and record his consumption he found it too annoying a task to continue on a regular basis. But whenever his wife asked if he wanted to go jogging he was quick to remind her that the doctor said to not push himself, though she would just as quickly remind him that he didn’t mean to lay around watching the game and drinking another beer.

So it was safe to assume that Jon rarely ever listened to anything a doctor told him to do, which was the same case when he stormed his way back into the hospital section of Canterlot Castle.

“Hey slow down!” a Unicorn surgeon said as Jon ran through the entrance.

“Sorry!” he yelled back.

“Hey! No running inside the building,” a nurse scolded as well.

“No can do doc!” Jon said as he ran past the receptionist desk, making his way to the right side of the building.

“Good afternoon,” the Earthpony receptionist said, but Jon failed to hear since he was already barrelling down one of the main hallways.

Ignoring suggestion after suggestion and attracting the attention of some stationed guards, Jon continued to run through the crowded hallway, occasionally ducking a low flying pegasus or jumping over a nurse pushing a trolley of snacks for a patient. By this point he was probably accumulating enough cardio to break even with all the times it was actually deemed necessary. His towering presence and almost life or death attitude to reaching his destination made him impossible to ignore. He did eventually stop though it was nowhere near where he wanted to be, but rather at the halfway point. He did so to catch his breath.

Stopping at an intersection where the hallways split into three other locations, Jon leaned against the wall with one hand outwardly placed to steady himself. He was sweating so profusely that he was momentarily blind from salty excrements getting into his eyes. He was in a hurry yes but there was no way he could continue without first taking a breather.

While this was happening a pony nurse approached from behind out of concern for both her colleagues and the sprinting giant himself.

“Um Mr. Stewart,” she began. “I’m going to have to ask you to not run any more... it’s not allowed in Canterlot Castle.”

“I’m… sorry,” Jon said in between breaths while avoiding eye contact. “I... just... need to... get somewhere.”

“Where exactly are you heading to? Do you need--” she asked as her eyes were drawn to what was in Jon’s other hand, realizing what it was and momentarily horrified that it was a medical syringe. “Is... is that a--”

Before she could finish Jon dashed off, this time with a fresh assessment of where he needed to be. He may have only been to this room once but that’s all he needed; and after a few turns here he could finally see just ahead by a few feet where he wanted to be, Room 485.

“Trixie,” Jon thought as he increased his sprinting. “I’m coming for you.”

This time he had no intention of watching his step as he rushed down the narrow hallway, bumping into and knocking down pony after pony, some of whom were important enough that if Jon didn’t know Celestia he’d be in huge trouble, but he did not care.

Slamming the breaks just a few feet outside Trixie’s room, Jon slid into the door at the same time he grabbed the handle to open it. Unfortunately the door was locked which meant that instead of swinging the door open and running straight to his friend as planned he slammed headfirst into its wooden frame.

Groaning in pain, Jon momentarily lost control of his appendages, which meant that as well as falling down to one knee he had also lost the firm grip he had on the antidote provided to him by Whooves.

“NO!” Jon yelled as he watched the precious shot of medicine fall to the ground, colliding with the cold, hard ground of Canterlot’s marble flooring where Jon’s fears fortunately did not come to being. Instead of shattering the syringe of futuristic medicine merely bounced and rolled a few inches away, only bearing a few scratches.

Contrary to how he made his way to this destination, Jon now found himself unable to breathe at all. The prospect of coming this far only to fail by his own impotence was something that seemed too cruel a fate to be real. Slowly, as if controlled by someone else, Jon reached forward and grabbed his last chance at redemption and gripped it so hard he could feel his heart beating rapidly through his hand.

For the longest time Jon felt as if he was no longer in control of anything that was going on in his life. But as he stood there, medicine in hand, he could finally feel something that he thought impossible, he felt like maybe this wasn’t the case anymore. Words couldn't describe how he felt at that moment, but in his head he knew what was to take place after he got that door to open. If he was finally in control this was the time to show it. This was it, this is what he wanted, this was what he needed and nothing was going to stop him.

Turning to his side, and without waiting for someone to do it for him, Jon lifted his head and, placing his body weight forward, lunged at the door to kick it open like a policeman would do to apprehend a suspect.

Due to his increased height and weight he easily managed to break down the door, but at the same time also inadvertently kicked the pony nurse, who was helping Trixie, square in the face, sending her flying across the room, crashing into a serving tray and then into a wall. She would forever regret offering to open the door after the initial crash.

Jon’s plan at this point was to ignore all casualties and head to the only one who mattered, that being Trixie, but as he stormed the room he found himself stopping to see that as well as Trixie there were still quite a bit of ponies now occupying her room, all of whom were in scrubs.

At first it was difficult to tell who was who under so many layers of hair nets, face masks, and pure white hospital attire, but their size and tails were a dead give away. In Trixie’s room stood Celestia, Twilight Sparkle, and a couple of Unicorn doctors in place of where the royal guards usually were, in the background.

All eyes were now on Jon but his were glued to the only one that mattered to him, Trixie, who was lying in her bed unconscious with a breathing apparatus over her mouth. Jon was of course concerned.

“What the hell is going on here?” he demanded to know. “Why is everyone-- why is Trixie not awake!”

The many eyes there were once looking at Jon now shifted and were looking at each other, each of them wondering who would be the first to explain. The obvious choice was the one who brought them all together and who initiated this session, Celestia herself.

“Jon, I didn’t expect you to be back so soon,” she said, taking a few steps forward to give herself away.

“What’s going on here!?” he repeated himself, now looking into Celestia’s eyes, she still finding it hard to look back.

“I... we wanted to wait till after your show to tell you,” she explained, taking a deep breath and deciding not to sugar coat it. “We’ve decided to do away with our previous assessment of Trixie’s condition and try to cure her using the Entropy spell.”

Previously it was Celestia herself who said this spell wouldn't work and was quite adamant in her refusal to use it, so for Jon hearing this made him take a step back like her words were pushing him away.

“What... but I... but I thought you said it was too dangerous,” Jon said.

“I did say this yes but I have been swayed to think otherwise by something you said,” she explained. “You accused me of not having Trixie’s best interest at heart... and that if it were my most faithful student Twilight in her condition I wouldn’t think twice about trying to save her... and you were right. I now realize that if I am not to at least try to help her then I am, in a matter of speaking, failing Trixie as her leader. So it is for that reason that Twilight, my sister Luna who is on her way, and the best doctors in the hospital are to help me in performing this spell.”

Every pony in the room felt a sense of pride at the fact that they were to work alongside Celestia in her attempt to help this meager pony regain her life. Her inspiring words filled them all with a sense of pride they would then channel later to perform the spell.

Even the pony nurse felt inspired to get up and walk over to Trixie’s body, adjusting her mask and fluffing her pillow to make her more comfortable. Her job was to observe Trixie’s heart rate and general condition through a standing monitor on wheels nearby.

Arching her head slightly, Celestia looked over to Twilight who, even though she was wearing a mask, smiled at her teacher and gave her a slight nod to let her know that what she was doing was the right thing. This sentiment was not shared by Jon.

“FUCK THAT!” Jon yelled as he pushed his way past her royal highness. “Are you insane!? The Entropy spell is too risky to try on Trixie! It could kill her!”

The warm feeling shared by all who agreed to help Trixie was shattered and replaced with a sense of confusion as it seemed opinions between Jon and Celestia had been reversed.

“B-but that’s what we said!” Twilight called out in confusion. “And you were mad that we weren’t even going to try!”

“Yeah well that was then and this is now!” Jon said as he positioned the syringe in his hand. Without warning he approached Trixie’s unconscious body and muscled his way to her face, accidentally elbowing the pony nurse in the process and knocking her to the ground. “And I pick plan ‘B’”

“Jon,” Celestia said with much concern. “What is that?”

Ignoring her, Jon quickly lifted his arm in the air, his first instinct was to jab the needle straight into her heart Pulp Fiction style but the idea of slamming his clenched fist onto her chest made him rethink his approach. So instead he reached out to her neck and without a second of hesitation placed the needle deep where he knew a vain would be, wishing that his wife was doing this rather than him.

With his fist no longer covering most of the syringe those in attendance could now clearly see what is was and were horrified to see that Jon was now injecting some unknown green substance into her body.

“WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU DOING!?” the doctor who was originally in charge yelled. “S-STOP! SOMEPONY STOP HIM!” But it was too late as every last ounce of the green liquid was now gone, residing inside of Trixie’s blood stream.

The first to try and stop the renegade human was the pony assistant who had to jump to grab his arm, the weight forcing the needle out of her neck. Without even thinking, Jon swung his arm to the side, sending the assistant pony flying across the room where she landed in pile of old dirty scrubs.

“GET HIM!” one of the other doctors demanded. All at once Jon was now being pulled upon by various ponies with the notable exceptions being Celestia and Twilight.

“WAIT! STOP IT!” Jon argued as the doctors tried their best to wrestle him to the ground.

“RESTRAIN HIM!” yelled one doctor.

“QUICK CALL THE ROYAL GUARDS” shouted another.

“LET… ME EXPLAIN!” Jon demanded, as he wanted to make sure every bit of medicine was used. Using their magic the doctors applied a variety of methods to restrain him, from using a spell to force him to fall to his knees to having his senses dulled so he’d be easier to overpower. Every official was working against him but the pony nurse who had at this point rushed by to her patient to check on her vitals through the monitor to see if she was still alive. And what she saw surprised her.

While this was happening Celestia just stayed back and watching in horror as her friend was slowly being overpowered. Her not wanting to get involved fueled by the fact that handling Jon was the right call as much as she didn’t want to accept it. Twilight on the other hand rushed to his aid.

“LET HIM GO!” begged Twilight.

“Doctor?”

“I SAID LET HIM GO!” Twilight repeated as she tried to use her own magic to break Jon free.

“GET HER OUT OF HERE!” one physician ordered.

“Doctor?”

“SHE’S HELPING THE ASSIGNMENT BREAK FREE!” he continued.

“Doctor?”

“HE’S NO CRIMINAL,” Twilight maintained. "DON'T HURT HIM!

Slowly Jon fell to his knees as he soon found that he was no match for those yanking him back, his vision starting to blur as the darkness took over.

“Tri...Trixie,” he tried to say over the sound of everyone yelling at each other, while reaching out to her.

“Doctor?”

“PRINCESS! PLEASE HELP ME!” Twilight begged when she wasn’t making much progress.

“Doctor?”

“Jon,” Celestia said in disbelief. “What have you done?”

“Doctor?”

“Good, he’s almost out!” one doctor said before turning to Celestia. “Your majesty! Quick, call the royal guards! We need to get him into a cell before he can do any more--”

“DOOOOOCTOOOOOOOOR!”

Suddenly the room went silent, with everyone frozen in time at the sound of an ear piercing shriek which came from the pony nurse who was still present and behind the terminal monitoring Trixie.

“Nurse! Now is not the time!” the main doctor, who was originally in charge of Trixie and was the nurses’ advisor said. “We’re sort of in the middle of something.” Taking a moment to think, the nurse then addressed her boss who was busily using her magic to restrain Jon’s arms behind his back.

“B-but it’s about... Trixie,” the nurse finally said which made Jon take notice even though he was nearly passed out.

“Oh dear sweet Celestia!” the doctor said. “What happened to her!? Is she alright?”

“Well... y-yes,” the nurse answered. “In fact, she’s... s-she’s been cured.”

This news was so groundbreakingly unexpected that the doctors who had tried to stop Jon lost control of their concentration, breaking Jon free from their restraints. The only sound that could be heard was from Jon who was breathing quite heavily while still on the ground.

“W... what did... you say?” the doctor asked as Jon slowly stood to his feet. “You’re... s-she’s cured?”

“Um... yes,” the nurse answered as she slowly turned to face the screen.

There were so many question floating in the air with not a single pony in the right mindset to ask them as they were too awestruck to produce words. Celestia herself could do nothing but look at Twilight who gave her the same look of unequaled surprise.

Soon all eyes were once again on Jon who, now regaining his strength, rushed over to the pony nurse to stand side by side with her, looking at the monitor that he didn’t even know how to read.

“S-s-so she’s alright now!?” Jon asked. “S-she’s going to live right!?”

“Well... I see... no trace of the invasive magic left anywhere in her system,” the nurse explained. “She’s perfectly healthy now... so yes... she’ll live.”

Even though this had already been established everyone present still couldn't believe it. And it seemed that even Jon didn’t think that would work based on how he lurched forward and buried his head into the terminal screen, like he had just fainted but the standing monitor caught him.

Slowly the nurse leaned in to see if he was alright but the second she got close Jon jumped back up and threw his arms up in victory, accidentally uppercutting the nurse, sending her flying through the nearby window and into a tree. No pony noticed this as they were too distracted by Jon’s sudden outburst.

“YES! HA, HA I DID IT!” Jon roared with a smile as tears streamed down his face. “I FUCKING DID IT!”

As if his newly electrified energy charged up everyone in close proximity, the doctors that previously tried to stop Jon then ran past him to take control of the situation. Three of them gathered around her body while the main doctor took the helm of the terminal.

“Okay folks, let’s make sure her condition is in fact stable!” she demanded as Unicorn horns could be seen scrambling about. “You! Take a blood sample to see if the disease is fully gone! You! Check her pulse and report to me if it dips at any point! And you! Let’s schedule a brain scan to be sure she’s mentally stable!”

“W-wait, can I talk to her?” Jon asked.

“Sorry sir but she won’t be awake for some time, we knocked her out with a lot of sedatives for the spell which we can’t do now,” the doctor explained. “After we’ve confirmed for sure she’s alright and she wakes up we’ll hand her over to you... if it’s alright with Celestia.”

Turning around so quickly he almost smacked Twilight, Jon gazed upon Celestia who had already taken off her medical garments, staring at her wide eyed like a begging dog.

“Of... of course it is,” she answered in a disbelieving tone, still unsure of what she had witnessed. Without even thinking about it, Jon jumped forward to throw his arms around her neck for an embrace. Celestia returned the gesture by wrapping her hoof around his back while Twilight came from behind to place a reassuring hoof against his thigh.

This subtle group hug didn’t last long with one doctor interrupting the moment by pushing Jon towards the door.

“Alright, alright everypony out, please,” he said, pushing both Twilight and Jon out but stepping to the side to give Celestia room to exit of her own accord. “We need to perform some quick tests to try and see what cured Trixie of her ailment! So for the rest of the day please leave us to our work.”

Jon wouldn't be able to talk to Trixie again for about 24 hours since the medical staff would have her temporally unavailable so they could isolate the substance used to heal her, unaware that the quick working medicine had long since deteriorated in her blood and would be impossible to replicate let alone analyze.

There was a large group of ponies, attendees and officials alike, who had gathered outside Trixie’s room after hearing all the commotion. When Jon exited the room they gathered in to see what was going on, but when Celestia revealed herself to be present they all scattered. Some tried to peek inside the room but the door was now shut.

Now in the hallway and no longer needed, Celestia had a nearby pony send word to Luna that her presence was no longer needed. And while everything had turned out better than expected, there was still a lingering question, Celestia finding now to be the perfect time to ask it.

“Jon,” Celestia began. “Where... did you get that?”

“Um… get what?” Jon shrugged, pulling a page out of Derpy’s playbook.

“You know ‘what’ Jon,” Twilight interjected. “That syringe filled with strange liquid... whatever it was... it... it cured Trixie!”

“Oh… OH! You mean ‘that!’” Jon Blurted as he backed away which caused both ponies to take a step forward. As skillfully as he could j “I uh... I found it.”

“You... found it?” Celestia said.

“Yeah that’s right!” he said.

“Where exactly did you find it?” Twilight asked.

“I... uh... I don’t remember,” he lied.

Growing more and more suspicious, Celestia and Twilight turned to face each other with equal degrees of uncertainty on their faces. They knew Jon wasn’t going to tell them and even though he hadn’t done anything wrong the fact that he somehow managed to get his hands on something that by rights should not exist meant it was of their utmost concern.

And yet... they were tempted to just leave it at that.

They both knew first hand the struggles Jon had to deal with lately. And while either of them could have easily used a spell to read his mind and reveal his secrets they decided to let him have this one. He had suffered enough.

“Okay then Jon,” Celestia said. “If that’s the truth... then I believe you.”

Going in for a hug one more time, Jon embraced his friend with a silent but mutual understanding on their part that he was being let slide by this one time.

“Thank you!” Jon said, now breaking free and slowly making his way down the hall. “Man this is great! I need to... I-I need to go! I need to head back home, get things prepared and tell Tracey and... and... AH, THIS IS AWESOME!”

“Here, I’ll help you with that.” Celestia chuckled as she escorted him to the exit. “I’ll show you the exit and send you home when you’re ready.”

“Thanks Celestia!” Jon said as the two disappeared around the corner. “And hey, maybe next time...”

With a sigh of relief and a newfound joy in her heart, Twilight watched as two of her most inspiring friends left together all smiles and laughs. Their friendship still in tact despite at one point looking as if it had been forever broken. Every day she was shown new ways of how the power of friendship was strong and ceaseless and this was just one more to mark down.

With plans to go back home and tell Spike all that had happened she got up and began to walk in the same direction as her two friends. However before she could the door to Trixie’s room swung open, catching Twilight’s attention. Immediately the main doctor poked her head out with purpose and did a quick scan before her eyes landed on the purple Unicorn who was but a few feet away.

“Oh, there you are Twilight!” she said.

“Doctor Gallops?” Twilight said.

“Come over here please, we need your help,” she added.

“Oh of course!” Twilight said as she ran back over. “How can I be of assistance?”

“Well I can’t find my damn nurse assistant anywhere so I need you to do a little errand for me if you please,” she said as she used her magic to produce something from behind her back. “I need you to take this down to the lab.”

Using her magic to make whatever it was hover in closer to her face Twilight realized that she was looking at a tiny bottle of thick red liquid.

“Is this...Trixie's blood?” Twilight asked as she motioned at the sample.

“Yes we need to run some tests to see if whatever that human used is still present,” she explained. “Hopefully they’ll be able to analyze what it was.”

Unbeknownst to either of them there wasn’t even the slightest drop of the medicine still left in her system and even if there was the technology they had was nowhere near sophisticated enough to properly identify what it was. Though since this request was in the pursuit of knowledge Twilight was all too eager to help.

“Sure thing Dr. Gallops!” Twilight said, using her magic to take the bottle ]into her possession. “I’ll get on that right away!”

Twilight didn’t come to this portion of the Castle very often but she still knew enough to know where the lab that the doctor was referring to was. So without a second thought she made her way down the hallways in the same direction that Celestia and Jon went.

This route brought her to a door that lead to one of the main stairways. Placing her hoof on the handle of the door that read ‘Stairway C’ she quickly opened it and began to briskly jog down the royal staircase which was isolated and confined to the point where she was now alone in a place of dead silence. She knew that for Jon he would have to head the the very bottom of the stair case to reach the way out but for Twilight her destination was simply the next lower level.

With each step Twilight wondered the same thing over and over. What was that thing that Jon had used on Trixie and why he felt it necessary to hide it from them? Oh how she wished she could have done some studies on it but she knew it was not to be since it was with Jon. She tried not to think about it so much since her sense of curiosity would have driven her mad, but just as she was starting to focus on something else the universe decided to indulge her a bit.

Suddenly Twilight found herself stopping in place, upon her next step she found that her back hoof and stepped on something, something cold and glass-like judging by the sound it made when she lifted her leg causing it to fall down a step.

Slowly she looked down only to realize that her silent prayers had been answered. Now frozen in place Twilight realized that she what she had stepped on was the mysterious syringe that Jon previously had in his possession. It would seem that it had fallen out of his pocket without him knowing. Without even thinking about it she quickly turned around and used her magic to levitate it up to face which was stuck in a permanent state of shock.

Looking behind her, Twilight made sure she was alone. No pony was using this staircase based on how her frantic breathing echoed up and down. Although this didn't belong to her and it was obvious she shouldn't be looking at it Twilight still found herself wanting to know more about what this was and perhaps even how Jon came to acquire it.

“No!” Twilight thought. “It wouldn't be right!”

Usually around this point she’d have someone to tempt her to go for it, a la childish reasoning from Spike or recklessness at the hands of Rainbow Dash. But even with no one to tell her otherwise she still found herself unable to resist.

Looking around once more to make sure she wouldn't be seen she opened the top half of the syringe to retrieve the vial that had at one point been placed in by someone obviously not Jon since he was not a doctor and would probably not know how to load one; her reasoning made her feel like a detective of sorts.

By all accounts both the syringe and per-loaded vial looked like ordinary medical tools with nothing to go by as to what it was, not even a little description tag, expiration date, or logo as to who made it. Using her magic she slowly turned it like it was an ear of corn she intended to eat so see if maybe there was any evidence to be found. She was about ready to give up and return this seemingly bland item to Jon when something caught her attention, that being a small pace of white paper attacked on the outside of the inner vial.

Twilight could only imagine what this was. She was nervous as evident by teeth chattering and the her magic becoming slightly unfocussed. With a deep breath she decided to pull herself together and get to the heart of her curiosity, she looked to the surface of the slender vial with squinted eyes. Based on the scratch marks in this area and the leftover sticky residue it was obvious that some kind of sticker was once there, most likely instructions or a description of the product.

Twilight deduced that in the same manner that he was playing amnesia Jon tore off the label to avoid having to disclose where he found this medicine, but in his haste he missed a small section of the attached parchment. Squinting her eyes even further Twilight read the small section of text that was still left over. Out of context it made little sense but it was all she had to go on.

“Huh,” Twilight thought. “I wonder what--”

“Twilight?” a voice said from behind.

“Wah!” Twilight yelped as she jumped forward and spun around. It was only after doing this did she realize that she was now in the presence of her human friend. “O-oh hello Jon! I thought you were with Celestia.”

“I was but then I realized I had... forgotten something,” Jon answered, taking a step forward and leaning in to giver her a look. “Might I ask what you have there?”

Even though she had nothing to fear Twilight still had reflexively used her magic to place the syringe behind her. Slowly she produced it for her to see.

"AHA! There it is!" Jon said as he quickly, and without asking swiped it from her possession and tucked it into his sports coat, this time in a more secure pocket. "Oh thank god! I thought I had lost this!"

“Yes I just uh... I just found it,” Twilight answered. “I was... delivering a sample of Trixie's blood to the tech ponies downstairs when I stumbled across it.”

“Is that right... I see,” Jon said with narrowed eyes at the now trembling Unicorn. “Tell me... you weren't thinking about keeping this for yourself and not telling me about it now would you.”

“N-no of course not!” Twilight blurted, her voice carrying far in the secluded section of the castle. “I-I just... I-I wasn't, even I could-- what I meant to say was I would never... I mean I only just found it and I thought--”

“Twilight... calm down,” Jon interrupted, as he leaned in to pat her shoulder. "I was joking."

"Y-yes! O-of course... it was... just a joke. Like a funny 'ha ha' kind of joke... HA HA!" She forced herself to say as she side stepped her friend to continue down her path. "Weeell anyway I'd love to say and chat but... I really... really need to um... get going so... bye bye! Congratulations again on um... everything!" Without breaking eye contact till the last possible second Twilight ran down the stairs. After it was clear that there was enough space between the two she stopped to take a quick breath, her mind full of questions.

In accordance with Jon’s wishes Twilight never did disclose what she had found out that day to anypony she knew, not her closest friends or even her mentor Celestia. But even so Twilight herself knew, and even though it was for only a small period of time Twilight would not soon forget what she read on that glass container of mysterious properties.

It was a small sliver of text but what Twilight could read was:

“...onal supply of Dr. Zenith...”

It wasn’t much; in terms of finding out anything useful it was almost nothing at all, but it did get Twilight thinking.

“Huh... ‘Zenith,’” she said out loud to get a feel for the pronunciation. “Hm… that’s a nice name.”