A Wish Come True

Joseph lets his gaze wander to the various windows in the tall hallway, each one depicting a different scene. One was mostly blues and dark greens with the moon at its center and another blue Alicorn near it. Another depicted six symbols in a rainbow of color. And another one was of four sections of land coming together in a circle; a maze of stone, a large jungle, a thick marsh, and then a flat plain with a single tree.

Joseph looks back at the two gaurds behind him, then at the one leading him in front. "Hay," he asks the leader, "do all of these windows tell a story? Or are they all just for show."

The guard doesn't move his head much, but regards his question. "Every image you see in these halls are tales of greatness, whether they are good or bad, that Princess Celestia has acomplished over the many millenia she has ruled." The guard turns left at another intersection and walks ahead with Joseph and the other two guards at his heels, er-hooves. The leader stops at a large pink double door, which is open. "Here you are, the med lab."

"Med lab," Joseph repeats.

The guard in front of him stands aside. "Go on then, in ya go."

Joseph nods and slowly takes a step forward, but not quickly enough. The two guards behind him brace the tops of their helms against the seat of his dark blue pants and push him into the room. Joseph swivels on his heels. "Hey! I am not some animal to be herded into a pen. I am a young, intellegent individual." Joseph turns again and steps forward, but his shoe catches the wide pantleg of his jeans and he fall forward, landing flat on his face on the hard, cold, unforgiving white tile.

The guards behind him burst into laughter, the leader resting against the doorframe. "Intellegent he says! Ha!" The door slams shut with a loud bang, but their laughter can still be heard from behind it. It fades as they walk away.

Joseph lays on the cool tile, his nose bent against his cheek and his feet in the air. He drums his fingers on the floor for a few moments. The sound of hooves coming closer doesn't affect his rythym. "Are you hurt?"

Joseph keeps his fingers moving, but doesn't raise his head. "Ih'm fihne, just leht me lahy here fer a minute..." Joseph continues messing with his digits. After a few seconds, he pushes himself up and reverts to a cross-legged sitting position. He rubs his nose with his left hand, feeling it and pushing it from side to side. He sniffs twice, then looks up at the pony who asked him if he was okay.

She tilts her head to the left, making her bright pink mane follow in suit over her long red horn. Her fur is a light red, and her eyes match. She's also wearing a pair of deep red rimmed glasses attached to her white coat by a pink chain. The collar of her white coat is pressed down, like she had just ironed it, and in the left breast pocket rests two pens; one red, one black. Joseph leans to the side to look at her flanks, and normally he would have slapped himself for checking out a girl's ass, but this was...sort of different. On her flanks were matching tattoos, Twilight called them cutie marks, of a pink heart with a white medical cross right behind it.

The Unicorn mare offers a hoof forward to help Joseph up, but then retracks it once she realizes how tall he is. Joseph stands up and looks down at the pony, him towering the normal two feet or so over her, like he does so many. "My, you're an odd one," she says.

Joseph forces a smile. "Yeah, hearing that a lot lately."

The mare clears her throat. "Well, I'm Doctor Love Hurtz, but you can just call me Love."

Joseph raises an eyebrow. "...Your name is Love Hurtz?"

Love giggles a bit. "Yes, I know. Ironic that I actually make the hurt go away." She steps aside and let's Joseph look around the room. It actually looks like the nurse's office in a school. There is a small bed-like bench against the back wall with a strip of wax paper sitting on top of it's light green fabric, a desk with a matching chair, a table on the opposite side of the room covered in empty beakers and bottles, and then there are multiple translucent plastic drawers all over the room, filled with items that Joseph can't quite make out. Doctor Love walks back to her chair, hops up into it, and then motions towards the bed.

Joseph walks over to it in four strides and sits down, the wax paper making that familiar crusty crumpling like at the nurse's offace at his old school. Joseph not only got a lot of crap at school, he took it to. Sucker-punches and hidden kicks sent him to the nurse's often. Joseph smiles as he rubs the paper with his open palm. "My name is Joseph King."

"All right Joseph," Love says in a happy, yet calm tone, "the Princess wants a full evaluation of you." She spins around in her chair as a large notepad and pen float to her side in a pink aura. "Tell me what you already know about your species."

Joseph begins at what he knows, basically reciting what he had told Twilight when he first met her a half-week ago. However, Joseph began to add more information such as, well, basically the whole semester of human development he had taken the year before in school. As he explains, time slips by. Love already has filled out multiple notepads and placed them in a neat stack on her desk. Joseph stops talking when she is about half-way through the fourth notepad.

Doctor Love looks from her notes up at Joseph. He shrugs. "That's all I know about the human anatomy. And behavioral patterns are a whole 'nother story."

"Interesting," Love says quietly. Then louder, "Very interesting." She puts her notes aside and rolls her chair close to Joseph. "The Princess wants as much information as she can get. If you are done speaking, let's move onto the physical examination." Love straightens her glasses. "If I could have you stand and remove your garments."

Joseph looks around the room, half expecting someone else to be around. "...Uh...okay." Joseph stands and peels off his shirt, taking his vest off as well. Love returns to her desk as Joseph kicks off his shoes and pulls off his socks. "Just put these anywhere?"

"That's fine," she replies.

Joseph piles his clothes into a neat bundle and pushes them aside with his bare foot. He then undoes his belt and unbuttons his jeans, letting them fall to the floor. Joseph sits back down on the bed and pushes his pants out of the way.

Doctor Love gets out of her chair and walks in front of Joseph. With the bed at such a low level, her forehead and horn are level with his own. She looks down questionably at his waist. "Joseph, if you would."

Joseph shakes his head. "This is the best you're gonna get. Sorry Love."

She smiles. "It's okay, I'm a doctor and a head reseacher."

"Doctor Love," Joseph begins, "as a self-respecting human, I insist I keep my undergarments on. We just met, and I don't plan on exposing myself at every corner I take in this kooky world."

Doctor Love's smile doesn't move. "Joseph, it's perfectly fine. I'm a doctor, and, even though you are a new species here in Equestria, you probably have nothing I haven't seen before."

Joseph stares into her red eyes though her glasses. After a few seconds, he sighs. "Fine. But you I catch you staring, I'm getting dressed again."

Love puts a hoof on his bare shoulder. It's warm. "Joseph, If it makes you feel better, you don't have to right now. I'll preform a few vital tests, and then we can continue."

"Thanks...I guess"

Love's horn glows breifly and a gray stethoscope floats over to her. It's just like those back on Earth; two prongs for hearing, a long tube connecting to a plastic circle, and a metal disk for the underside of the circle. She plugs it into her ears and magically places the circle against Joseph's chest. He shivers and goosebumps form on his skin.

Love moves the scope around his chest, listening to different areas. "Now just relax," she says calmly. She tests a few more times, then her pen begins to write something on its own. Love takes off her scope and sets it down next to her notepad, which tears a new page. "Okay, hold on for a moment Joseph."

"Whatever you say Doc." Joseph rubs the front of his chest with his hand to warm up his skin.

Doctor Love hops onto the bed along with Joseph with a wooden popcicle stick floating near her head. "Open please."

"Alright." Joseph opens his mouth and lets Love press down on his tongue with the stick.

She moves it around a bit and peers into Joseph's mouth. She taps his back teeth and retracks the stick. Joseph hears the audible scratching of her pen writing by itself. "Alright Joseph," Love begins, "you're teeth are very different from ours. Do you mainly eat plant-life, or are you a carnivore?"

Joseph closes his mouth. "Most humans eat both meat and plants. Fruits and vegetables, really. But I'm strickly vegetarian."

"Very peculiar." Love returns to the floor and watches her notepad and pen work. She rereads what it, what her magic, has written. "...Well, here comes the part of the job that you might not like." She walks oer to one of her drawers and puls it open. She closes it and goes to it's neighbor and open that one. Love's horn begins to glow and a small plastic bag containing a pen floats out.

"What do you mean I won't like it?"

Love walks back over to the bed and unwraps the pen. Joseph looks closer and sees that it's not a pen, but a freshly sterilized scalpel. He swallows as Love brings it closer. "I need to retrieve a few samples. If you could hold out your hand..."

Joseph instinctivly crosses his arms. "You're not gonna cut me with that, are you?"

Love smiles. "Of course not. I'm just going to collect a small skin sample." Joseph hesitates, but extends his right hand, palm up. Love brings the scalpel to his skin and presses down slightly. She then drags it across his palm, not cutting him because the blade is positioned to scrape. "...There, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Love's horn stops glowing and the scalpel rests on the desk. A small glass disk float over by it and sits down.

Joseph rubs his hand. "No, I guess not."

Doctor Love writes a few things down herself and takes the skin sample over to the other side of the room. She places it carefully out of the way and begins rummaging through her drawers again. "Oh dear. I really do need to organize these." She closes the drawer and opens another. "Ah, here they are."

"Here what are?" Joseph asks.

Doctor Love comes back with a thin strip of metal that has a plastic base with a gauge. "Here, slip this in the crease of your arm. It'll take you temperature."

Joseph lifts his arm ans Love magically places the meter aganst his side. Joseph lowers his arm to hold the meter in place. He'd only been sick a number of times at home, and an armpit thermometer was always what his mother would use, so this was nothing. Joseph past his knees with his hands. "...So...Doctor Love, how's it here...in Equestria?"

Love goes back to her desk and jumps into her seat. "Equestria has many regions Joseph."

Joseph rethinks his question. "...How's it here in Canterlot?"

"Fair," she replies shortly. "...I mean, not a lot happens here, but I'm almost always busy."

"With what?" Joseph asks.

Love chuckles to herself. "Even though the guards here are just guards, they often find themselves here with me. Though I do see a lot more training accidents then regular carelessness. Twisted ankles, broken ribs, torn ligements, sword wounds, the occasional spear injury...Oh, and a lot of magical burns."

Joseph reaches up and rubs the back of his head, whih causes the thermometer to fall to the bedside. "Oops."

Love grabs it in a field of magic and brings it to her face. She looks over and Joseph with a puzzled, more curious, look. "Ninety-nine degrees. Is that normal?"

Joseph points a finger to the ceiling. "If you want to get specific, the average human's internal temperatue is supposed to be ninety-eight point six. So yeah, I'm pretty normal."

"Alright." Love writes down a few more things and they both sit quietly as she does. Her pen falls. "I'll just preform one more thing before we continue your physical."

Joseph smiles, but it disappears once he realizes he's that closer to stripping. "...Alright, I guess. So what is it? An eye test?" Love gets down from her desk and returns to the multiple drawers. Joseph clears his throat. "Maybe it would be easier if you got everything out all at once so you don't have to keep going back and forth. A lot of the doctors at my home do it, but then again, its not very efficent. Kinda cluttered." Joseph crosses his arms, but brings one up to rest his chin on. "Anyway, this last test...What is it exactly? We've kinda covered...every...thing..." Joseph straightens up, his back arching. His pulse begins to race and his skin becomes damp. His skin loses its color and his eyes go wide as he sees Doctor Love bring out a fresh needle.