The pegasi were only growing more excited, unlike Joypad, who was keeping a more careful eye on David. "You don't look so well."
"Ah'm fine," he got out, a little slurred. "Sorry, need to watch…" He paused as if to collect his words. "--myself. We--"
"Eh…" Joypad looked far from convinced.
“Hey, David… buddy…” Ragdoll scrambled over to his friend. “I know you ain’t drunk this time of morning. That would be more my thing. We are getting you to some medical attention, stat. Sorry Jet, we gotta reschedule. If you could point us to the nearest clinic, that would be great! Joypad, how long has he been here for and has he found a local source for his meds?”
Joypad frowned softly. "Meds?"
Ah, right, those. "Why would they have that?" David sagged against a desk, even if it was being worked at. It was a convenient thing to lean against. "I'll be fine. Just need to relax a second."
Jet and the designers were all confused by the sharp turn. The second female squinted at David. "Do you have some kind of human problem? An old human problem?" The others perked as if that made sense.
“He has a… I’ma go with ‘blood condition’.” Ragdoll Charlie nodded emphatically. “He needs a doctor… no wait, make that a veterinarian. We need a medical professional competent treating other species. A pony doctor would be worse than worthless.”
"It isn't a blood thing," laughed out David, even if he had his eyes closed as he did it. "Alright… better…"
The first female shook her head. "We can't have our star being sick. Your little doll friend has a good idea. To the vet!"
Jet frowned suddenly. "Sending one of our stars to a vet feels odd when they can talk." But was a better idea coming? Not really. "Let's get him moving."
The meeting was brought to an unceremonious halt with the first rolling over a wheelchair, casually knocking David over the moment he stood up fully, right into it. "Off we go!" She trotted energetically towards the elevator, Joy trailing behind her.
“Sorry to cut it short Jet, and for what it’s worth, I’ve decided you all right,” the doll waggled a leg from his renewed perch atop Gloomy’s beret, “I’m still gonna call you Zing forever, but you lookin’ out for my friend puts you in the the ‘good’ book. You alright.”
"Was it the food?" reasoned Joy as they went, pausing for the elevator to come. "You were fibbing about that, weren't you? I let you poison yourself with something." She was dancing hoof to hoof with obvious worry.
"It isn't that, promise." He found a soft pony ear and began to pet it gently. "Nothing you could have done a thing about. More it a ticking bomb I didn't have last time I came to visit Equestria."
Jet was left with a doll. "Hm." He was left with a doll. Just a doll. "A talking doll." As if he were responding to the announcer of the world. "Maybe we could… do something with that."
“I need three coin operated cabinet games delivered to the Crystal Tea House in Bridlewood to start.” Gloomy rolled her eyes, her voice even, almost bored.
“Uh, Gloomy… medical emergency…” Rag Doll flailed.
“...Is being attended to.” Gloomy Sonet heaved a heavy sigh. “We get to the meeting and then I do the talking. Stick to the plan.”
She… wasn’t wrong?
Out came a phone. Beep boop beep. "Hey! It's Jet, yeah… Got a customer here with something I want that needs some cabinet games, uh huh… Let me ask." Jet lowered the phone, smiling at Gloomy. "Which games?"
“Our current best performing games involve competition between players. And pinball. Everypony loves pinball.” Gloomy looked into the middle distance. “I need the two you think would collect the most tokens.”
"Well, we don't do pinball games," came the masculine voice over the phone held atop Jet's hoof. "But we got all kinds of great arcade games! You want multiplayer? You got it. We'll take their tokens and make them rush to give you some more. You got a theme going for your arcade?" They sounded almost as eager as Jet, though with a different focus clearly.
“We are the game house that gave the Unicorn Crystal as a prize.” Gloomy stamped a little rhythm with her hooves.
And so the debate continued to find the proper game that'd fit in with a unicorn arcade. "You have electricity, right?" One did have to confirm that.
Meanwhile, David was being thrust in front of a pegasus with a big red cross on her hat with little hearts blossoming from its points. "What?" She inclined her head at the human. "I've never seen an animal like that before."
"Mammal, simian," offered David helpfully, or so he hoped. "Sapient."
"I see that last part." She pawed at an ear with a hoof. "Or hear it, I suppose is more accurate. If you can talk, you tell me what's wrong, or at least what feels wrong." She sat down with a little smile. "That's a step I normally can't make with my patients."
That got a chuckle at the thought of it. "I imagine not. So… Pretty sure my immune system is busy chewing on the cords, which is causing problems. I have no idea how far advanced your medical tech is. Did anything I say make even a little--bit of a sense?"
The poor vet inclined her head slowly at that. "Which cords do you mean?"
"Nerves." He wriggled his fingers as if that could help imitate dendrites. "A nerve is covered in a layer of insulation, and that's being… attacked, which can cause them to be dam-- damaged, or short out."
"That sounds awful…" She frowned with obvious thoughts. "But I don't have medicine for that… And that doesn't sound like something I can… bandage or cut."
"No, not really." David was not arguing that.
To Joypad's annoyance. "Stop taking everything calmly." She swatted at him lightly. "This is your life on the line."
"What can we do about it?" countered David. "I could flail, but that won't fix it." He pointed to the nice pegasus vet. "She wants to help, which, thanks, but she can't." He closed his eyes as if against a headache. "I didn't want to experience that again…"
"Sorry to bother you." The vet was still there. "But does this condition have a name by chance?"
"Hm?" Well, couldn't hurt. "Multiple Sclerosis, or Many Scars. Refers to the scars you get on the nerve lining I was just talking about." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Adventuring when you're older isn't easy."
"You have some kind of…" Joypad was leaning in from the side, examining her human as if she could see the problem. "Terrible thing and you didn't tell me? Why?!"
"I was hoping it'd go away? I was hoping Equestria didn't worry about that. Different world, different rules." He shrugged softly. "I'm feeling better." And he pushed up out of the chair. "Just knocks the wind out of your sails a… bit."
"You are not better," Joy practically yelped at him. "Doctor, what can we do?"
But the vet shrugged. "The only idea that comes to mind would be to try the unicorns. They have magic." She wagged her hooves in a hopefully magic way. "They could maybe magic the problem away? I can't help."
Back in the tech tower, another Text's creation argued. “David lives,” The ragdoll muttered.
“You are aware of what this is going to cost? That wasn’t even my call to make!”
The words were for Charlie alone, floating clearly in his mind's eye, which was the only place it needed to be.
In the vet's lab, the other Text spoke to David, words appearing silently. Was that even speaking?
Your friend is arguing for you. Silly, really. Their Text has no power over you.
"That's nice of him," noted David quietly as the others talked and debated about what to do with him. "Don't punish him for it."
And I have no power over them, so no reason to fear that. All fair, in the end. But their Text knows. They know we're talking, just as I know they are.
Back above: "There’s nothing you can do about that.” Gloomy beat her gentle rhythm on the floor, scooping her doll into a hug.
"He must have been tired." The vet shook her head at the suddenly napping human in her clinic. "Well, unfortunately, I can't help them any more than I had… They aren't in pain, are they?" The two that accompanied the human shook their heads.
"Not like he'd admit it," grumbled Joypad. "Well, he might, but he didn't. Just got real dizzy all of a sudden like he forgot which way is up."
The vet offered a small bottle. "From his weight, offer two of these if he is experiencing pain. I really do wish I could offer more. I don't like seeing a suffering animal of any kind."
The female that had come with them from Pegasoft frowned softly. "Well, we don't want to lose our spokepony that quickly… Sounds like he has to go to the unicorns."
"Sounds like," agreed Joypad in a far less certain voice. She got in behind the chair and got to pushing. "Well, we know a unicorn at least. They got here safely. They should know how to get back."
Meanwhile back at the meeting, “You drive a hard bargain, filly,” Jet smirked, “But I think you and your friends will find this agreement, well, agreeable. There’s even a clause to acknowledge your friend’s humanity in the event of ‘unicorn shape-changing’… let me say that’s some imagination you’ve got there.”
“Humans sometimes change shape when contacted by pony magic,” Gloomy stated the boring historical trivia point boredly, by rote, “It goes back to an ancient disease from an alternate universe. At least that’s what my jinx-doll told me.”
“Pretty sure that’s why you ain’t got no humans now…” Ragdoll inputted in a hushed voice. “They all turned into ponies…”
But David woke suddenly, jerking into motion. "Wait!"
Joypad stopped, not even having escaped the animal hospital he had been brought to. "Welcome back to waking."
"Thanks." David was already standing, getting up nigh instantly from his nap. "I want to ask the doctor something. She here?"
"I am." She was in the hallway leading into the back, peering at David curiously. "I should get to the next patient. What's up?"
David pointed to Joypad. "I fed her some… potatoes? Tubers of some kind. Just want to be sure they weren't poisonous."
The doctor shook her head. "My specialty is animal medicine. Ponies should avoid random things that look like potatoes, but if you aren't dead." She looked Joypad over, very not dead. "You're fine, just don't make that a habit. Fluffy!" Three ponies looked at her. "A cat?" Two ponies were still looking. "Male?" Ah, one pony left. "This way please."
The Pegasoft designer was peering at David with an unsure gaze. "I know you're standing, but are you up to--"
"I'm fine."
"He's not fine," grumped Joypad. "Sit down and let your friend take care of you!"
"I'm not…" Despite that, he did sit down, looking a bit abashed. "Thank you…"
"You're welcome." Joypad got to pushing the chair forward. "I swear, you don't lose points leaning on your friends. It's what they're good for. You've helped me out before, only fair."
The designer followed along with a smile. "Hopefully your other friends, the unicorn and her doll, are still there. They can help us get to the unicorn town."
Joy raised a brow at the pegasus that had joined them. "Don't you have games to design?"
"I have a thousand questions!" She closed in from the side of the wheelchair. "We have myth, and in-game lore, but never ever did we have an actual human to ask, if you don't mind? Please?"