Episode 18: Dr. Whooves on the Daily Show

The sound of footsteps or idle banter echoing through the hallways of sovereign buildings had a tendency to carry far and last long. This was partially because of how, like most structures in Equestria, they were built to have high up ceilings to make room for flying Pegasi. This also meant that ponies who worked in such environments would adapt to such distractions and learn to tune out any noise that echoed for very long.

A prime example of this would be the employees who worked in the Castle. Because of its structural design, someone could be whispering on one end of the room and be heard quite clearly on the other side. In addition, since the Castle was the capital of Canterlot, and indeed all of Equestria, there was never a dull moment, with at any given time an important meeting going on or ponies rushing to requisition something.

It goes without saying that if you wanted to work within the Castle walls you needed to be laser focused and not easily drawn away from your work, though even the nurses and doctors of Canterlot Castle Hospital found it hard to ignore the sound and sight of Jon Stewart thundering down hallway after hallway, trying to find an exit.

His ability to remember directional layouts served him well, even with his vision distorted by tears as he backtracked his way through the hospital. Some staffers had to leap out of the way for fear of being trampled over, which prompted others to call out to him to not run indoors, but he didn’t care.

The further he ventured the more he saw doctors and nurses of all shapes and colors, and wondered why they weren’t all breathlessly working to find a cure for his friend Trixie; after all... because of her their world still existed in peace rather than at the control of Queen Chrysalis. The more he thought about it, the more he concluded that he really was the only person who had her best interest in mind. Back when he met her he always thought she was being hyperbolic when she confided that back home no one cared about her, but now he saw just how right she was.

Head after head turned at the booming sound of Jon’s considerably heavy (by pony standards at least) weight slamming on the ground, as he continued his full on sprint down a cluttered hallway before turning and running down a vacant one. After a while he began to notice that the calming colors of the walls were giving way to more vibrant hues as the wild and spastic designs began to reappear. This told Jon that he was heading in the right direction, which was the waiting room he had previously occupied.

Even without the tell tale signs he would have remembered given his keen sense of direction that came with the territory of living in a city like New York. Soon he saw some familiar landmarks and rooms that he remembered seeing when he was first escorted to the room.

Fueled by memory alone, Jon rounded a corner and burst forth into the base of the hospital, almost knocking over an orderly in the process, where he was momentarily blinded by its increased brightness, which was mostly due to the natural sunlight from the windows.

Again his towering presence and sudden appearance earned him the attention of ponies coming and going, each of them wondering what was going on and if it was something that they need to concern themselves with. There were actually some fans of The Daily Show camped in the area, hoping to get to talk to him when he returned on the assumption that he’d be willing to converse after his visit with whoever he was seeing, but when they saw how distraught he was they collectively decided to continue leaving him alone.

Jogging in place, Jon quickly scanned the area for the exit whereupon he sprinted forth in the most direct route which was through a cluster of ponies sitting in chairs waiting to be called, and a line to the nearby gift shop. Ignoring everything around him, he ran as fast as his elderly legs could take him, with the last thing to catch his attention being the sound of the pony working the front desk calling out to him.

“Have a nice day,” she said with the same level of enthusiasm as she did anyone who left the front door; Jon didn’t return her gesture.

The hospital itself was located fairly close to base of the Castle, with Jon finding his way outside in less than a few seconds. The castle was surrounded by a moat, which was something Jon always found comical in a cliche sort of way, but there was no levity to be had now as he made his exit.

The Castle’s front door policy was always in effect around this time, sparring Jon the possible scenario of explaining where he was going to the front guards, though his being a celebrity and in a well known business relationship with Celestia pretty much gave him a free pass anyway.

At any given time there were at least four to six guards standing at the front gate who check everyone who came and went. This time however there were only two, each of whom were shocked to see Jon run past them, galloping across the Castle’s front entrance and across the moat where he stopped and fell to one knee like he was about to collapse from exhaustion. It looked as if he was about to fall into the water, which he almost did, but thankfully avoided when he reached out and grabbed the metal chain of the draw bridge for balance.

The two guards noticed this and adjusted their armor as they slowly approached him, his advanced age and semi-poor health were well documented among Castle staff at the behest of Celestia, who wanted to make sure he always had a pleasant visit. But when the two spear wielding guards got within earshot of him Jon let out a roar of anger so loud and atrocious that the guards drew their weapons by instinct.

It was only shortly thereafter when Jon lifted his arm to slam his fist on the ground in apparent anger did the two guards understand what was going on. Realizing that the best thing for him would be to leave him alone, the two guards turned around to walk back to their post, getting back to their positions just in time to see their human guest crawl a couple feet forward like a wounded animal before sitting down and leaning his back against one of the chest high stone structures that marked the drawbridge’s limit.

Again the two guards felt compelled to see if he was okay, but with no one coming or going at the moment they saw no harm in letting him stay there. This unseen gesture of theirs would have been greatly appreciated by Jon had he noticed it, but his mind was too busy processing too much unwanted information at once. He felt like he was in a nightmare, a nightmare he thought he would never have to come face to face with.

“Oh God,” Jon thought as he wiped tears away from his eyes, staring upwards and stretching out his palm to block the incoming light of the sun. “What am I going to do?”

For the first time since the reveal Jon had a quiet moment all to himself to think, though there was, at any given time, only one thing on his mind. But nevertheless as he thought of what was said, what had happened, and what will or will not happen; it was almost too much for him to comprehend.

Jon was feeling a full range of emotions, one of which was a searing twang of guilt as a gentle breeze of air wafted across his face. In hindsight he regretted how he handled the situation. He especially felt bad about how he verbally assaulted two of his dearest friends here in Equestria and how he accused them all of being terrible people. Were it not for his body, which was physically and emotionally drained, begging him to stay put and catch his breathe he would have walked back up to apologize for his behavior and maybe try again at convincing them to see things his way; but he knew that last idea was a waste of time.

He definitely said some things back there that he didn’t mean and only said in the heat of the moment. But one thing he did say which he still had every intention of backing up was his promise to Trixie about how he would save her, somehow. And it was this promise which gave Jon the biggest sense of dread.

“What... what am I going to do!?” Jon repeated out loud, again slamming his still aching fist on the ground.

If there was one thing that Jon took away from that dreadful meeting it was that at present his only option for saving Trixie was getting someone to perform the spell revealed to him by Twilight, a spell so complicated that it would take only the brightest and most developed Unicorn minds to pull it off... two of which he left behind after yelling at them with insulting accusations. Jon’s plan was not off to a good start.

But at the same time he knew that those two, powerful though they may be, weren’t the only heavy hitters of the Pony world. There were those out there with just as much power, if not more, and Jon was determined to take as long as it took to find and convince them to help. The only problem was Jon only had a few weeks before Trixie would pass away and he had no idea where to even begin looking.

Laying his head all the way back, Jon lowered his hands and closed his eyes and let the breeze blow over him and the sun shine on his face. He was starting to get his second wind but even so he still felt weak. He thought about how big this world was and how it would probably take him days to find those, whom he didn’t even know of, who were were willing and able to help him. The thought alone made him feel small and weak by comparison.

He thought about how he was supposed to be home by now, about how he had a family to look after, a show to conduct, and a life completely separate to everything going on here that he needed to manage. It was during this self reflection that Jon came to the conclusion that he was only one man... a man in a world he barely knew trying to solve a problem he knew very little about and was deemed impossible by the god of said world. Again, he felt small by comparison.

With his chest slowly expanding and contracting, Jon laid silent and began to think, think about how Trixie accepted her fate and that perhaps he should follow suite.

“What can I do?” Jon thought. “I’m only one person.”

As if he himself were the one dying his body went limp as he felt like he was fading away, with his mind slowly losing, slipping into a dark haze of nothingness.

“Maybe I should just give up,” his thoughts continued.

Although he wasn’t literally dying he felt as if he was, especially since his life was now flashing before his eyes. Only instead of his entire life it was the life he shared with Trixie, from the day she barged her way into his home and onwards. Of course this meant he was reminded of how she was now in a predicament where she was destined to die as well as the events that ultimately led to her being where she was now. This made Jon jolt forward violently.

“NO!” Jon roared, scaring the two stationary guards. “I’ll make this right!” It was at that moment that Jon didn’t care how impossible it seemed or how much time he would have to spend in this strange world, he vowed to himself then and there that he would not leave Equestria till he knew his friend would be cured of her terrible disease.

Leaning back on his stone divider, Jon closed his eyes once again and began to think. He thought about where to go from here and how he would go about finding someone with the skills necessary to pull off such a feat. He had ideas but that’s all they were, ideas. He hadn’t yet come up with a foolproof plan, at this point all he could do was speculate. He didn’t want to begin his quest to save his friend without first knowing exactly what needed to be done next.

Despite his background, Jon wasn’t much of a religious man, but desperate times did indeed call for desperate measures. So at that moment he prayed... silently and earnestly he prayed. He prayed for guidance in this matter, hoping that some unseen force he only briefly believed to be real would send down a guardian to assist him.

Realistically he didn’t expect anything to come of this, but the thought that perhaps there was someone out there looking down on him helped lessen the strain that was bounding him down... which is why he would be surprised to find that his guardian angel had, at the moment, arrived and was hovering just above his head. His prayers were answered.