Twilight smiled and hummed slightly to herself, a large book was open on the table in front of her and many more piled high around it, the table creaking under their weight. As she placed her hooves to the paper and began to read the world around her began to fade away as her mind was filled solely with the task of gaining new knowledge. Pages turned in a wild flurry as Twilight devoured the knowledge within at a pace so fast that anypony looking would think the Princess' life depended on it. Which it just may.
Unfortunately, the book, despite claiming to cover the physiology of 'Ponies and all Species thereof,' seemed to cover nothing of Alicorns beyond a single paragraph.
"Alicorns are a sub-species of which only two currently exist, Princess Luna and Princess Celestia, because of this not much is known of the physiology of this species. What we do know is that they display traits of all three of the main pony species. They both have wings like Pegasus, horns like Unicorns and the thicker body of Earth Ponies."
Twilight let out a quiet groan of frustration, what a fat lot of good this book was. The fact it had the nerve to say it covered the physiology of every pony species and at the same time only provided information about Alicorns that any foal could tell you. Slamming the book shut, she discarded it onto the floor and pulled another tome from one of the piles to read.
Opening the book, Twilight was welcomed to a face full of dust, the tome clearly hadn't been read in a while. Brow furrowed in annoyance Twilight lit her horn, the dust instantly disappeared, leaving both the tome and her face in a pristine condition. Now dust free, Twilight placed her muzzle within an inch of the pages and inhaled deeply, the sweet smell of knowledge flowing through her and filling her sinuses.
"Ahh," Twilight sighed gently as a dreamy smiled spread across her face. "There's nothing like a good book."
The serene and peaceful moment was sadly spoiled by a sudden, large crash which rattled the table and causing the piles of books to collapse, sending them all to the floor. All Twilight could do was sit there, her eyes twitching and hair beginning to slowly fray, as she began to look more and more disheveled by the second.
"House! What in Equestria did you do?!" Screamed Twilight as she jumped to her hooves almost flipping the table in the process.
Grinding her teeth, Twilight swallowed a deep breath and exhaled slowly in a failed attempt to calm down.
"Alright, Twilight, calm down. I mean, what's the worst he could do? It's not as if he could have destroyed half the library when left to his own devices..." Twilight's speech descended into mad laughter as she could barely consider the possibility of her thoughts.
Her laughter dying, Twilight took another deep breath, holding it in until her face began to turn red with the effort. When she was no longer able to contain it, she exhaled slowly, As the breath left her body, she felt her pulse slow and her anger lessen slightly, now at the point of simmering instead of full out boil. Now feeling calm enough to deal with the situation at hand, she made a mental note to tidy up the books later and left to go find House and fix whatever mess he had created.
The moment that joke left his lips, House sort of regretted it. One one hand he got to antagonize Wilson, which, after the craziness of the day so far, returned a small note of normalcy to the situation. Even if Wilson was a pony now. On the other hand, the aforementioned ponifcation of Wilson bestowed him with a powerful set of hind legs which he had just used to 'buck' House across the room causing him to crash into a large bookcase.
"Ahhh! " House cried out in pain as his back collided with the bookcase, causing the wood to splinter as books rained down all around him. Unfortunately, a particularly heavy volume fell from the upper shelves, struck House on the head with a glancing blow and knocked him out cold.
Wilson could only look on in horror, his mouth agape as the last few books fell to the floor. Taking a quick look at his hind legs, he could hardly believe what he'd just done. Some small part of him was proud, he had punched House down before, but never across a whole room. However, the greater part of him was ashamed. Yes, he had had a traumatic day, transforming into a pony not a number one goal in life, and stuck in what appeared to be another universe or on another world. But, House was also stuck here, and how did he expect House to behave? Did he honestly expect if he did meet House that House wouldn't make a terrible joke?
He sighed and rubbed his face with a hoof - which was still a strange sensation for him. No, he shouldn't have expected anything different from his friend. Even if House was trying to improve - a fact proved by him giving up any chance to practice medicine again in their own world - he was still a miserable ass.
Finally deciding he was in the wrong, he trotted over to the pile of books in which House was half buried and set about doing his best to try and recover his friend from the wreck. The task, he soon found out, was far more difficult than he expected with his new appendages. His hooves, nice as they were, were completely incapable of holding anything. Which was strange, because he's seen hundreds of ponies holding things in their hooves as he walked around Canterlot earlier that day. He considered this and concluded he probably just needed more experience with using them.
Just as he was finishing placing the tenth book from the pile back onto a shelf, the sound hoofsteps echoed down the corridor. Somepony was coming and as Wilson looked around at the mess that filled the room and the unconscious House, he was sure he was about to be royally screwed.
Like a deer caught in a set of headlights, Wilson could only stand there, book precariously balanced on his hoof, and wait for who or what was coming and hope they wouldn't be too harsh. Unsure what to do, Wilson continued to stand there as the hoofsteps got louder and louder, his gaze constantly shifting from glances at the entrance to the room, to concerned looks at his friend.
With the hoofsteps getting louder and closer, it soon became clear that whoever was approaching was also grumbling openly.
"I can't believe the nerve of some creatures," the voice complained rather loudly. "Twenty minutes in a library and already wrecking the place."
Whoever it was sounded really annoyed, and by the words they were using, it was definitely the sound of House crashing into the bookcase that attracted them. Though, if he was to make assumptions, he would assume House and this pony already knew each other. Oh how he felt sorry for them - though who he felt more sorry for he couldn't tell.
After about a minute more, the pony - a violet mare - turned the corner and entered the room, her eyes going wide as she took in the scene before her. In response, Wilson looked down sheepishly at the ground, expecting any second now for the hammer of blame to fall squarely on him. However, the pony just stood there in silence as she looked back and forth from the pile with House in it to Wilson repeatedly.
When eventually she spoke, Wilson was surprised, very surprised in fact by the words that left her lips.
"May I please apologize on behalf of Princess Celestia and myself for whatever this jackass did to cause the current situation."
"Wait? What?" spluttered Wilson, completely thrown off by the apology.
"I'm sorry for whatever he did that caused you to knock him into the book case." Twilight repeated.
"I got that part, miss, but what makes you think it was his fault?" asked Wilson
"Trust me, if you knew him, you'd be the first to blame him as well." Replied Twilight, her voice stained with loathing.
"Oh, I know him." Stated Wilson, his voice filled with a tinge that only those who had actually experienced House could have. "In fact, I know him very well."
"Oh?" asked Twilight as she considered what he meant, quickly coming to a conclusion. "Oh... Wait, how can you possibly know him?"
Wilson looked at the ground, unsure how to answer the question. In the end, he decided to be honest.
"I-I'm a friend of his, back from our world."
"Friend... Our world..." Was all Twilight could say as she considered Wilson's statement.
"But you're a pony," she eventually said. "How is that possible?"
"What do you mean?" Wilson asked.
"Well, House is clearly a human. You're not." Twilight replied.
"I am, or was at least - until this morning."
"Wait, so you got transported with him?" Twilight asked.
"I guess," Wilson replied while scratching the back of his head. "We were both completely drunk, so I'm not sure what happened. I remember passing out in an alleyway, and then the next thing I knew I woke up in the garden next to some statues."
"Hmm," said Twilight, deep in thought. "That sounds exactly like how House described his experience. I guess you might be telling the truth."
"Of course I'm telling the truth. Never met anyone who'd lie and actually say they know House. Most would say they didn't know him." Said Wilson, a hint of mirth in his voice.
"Good point." Responded Twilight cheerfully.
"So, what should we do about this?" asked Wilson, pointing towards House and the pile of books.
"Well, normally I'd tidy the books. But I'm on a clock." Replied Twilight.
"And House?"
"Is an annoyance. He was meant to be helping me, although he had to learn some basic pony biology first." Twilight answered before her ears flattened against her head and she looked down at the floor. "I guess now I'll have to do it alone."
Twilight sighed and slowly slid down onto her rump before rubbing her forehead with a hoof. Wilson watched as she was clearly trying her best to deal with stress, with not much success. Unable to stand seeing her like this, Wilson went up behind her, and clumsily, did his best to message her shoulders. The moment Wilson's hooves touched her shoulders, Twilight tensed as she felt the invasion of her personal space.
"W-what are you doing?" she stuttered.
"Sorry, is that not okay?" Wilson stopped what he was doing. "You seemed to be dealing with a lot of stress, was only trying to help."
"N-no, it's fine, I guess. Just wasn't expecting it." Twilight said.
In response, Wilson began massaging her shoulders again. This time, Twilight sunk into the message, even eliciting a small groan causing Wilson to chuckle and a slight blush to appear on Twilight's violet cheeks.
"Feels good?" asked Wilson.
"Umm..." replied Twilight. "Not too bad I guess."
"Uhuh," said Wilson, not completely bought by her nonchalance and continuing to massage her. "So, what do we do about House?"
"I'm not sure," said Twilight. "I'm half tempted to leave him buried. Sadly, the Princess put me in charge of him, she seems to think he's some sort of medical genius."
"He is that." Said Wilson.
"Really?" asked Twilight looking at the buried House. "So I can't just leave him there then?"
"Would the princess punish you if you did?" asked Wilson.
"I don't think so," replied Twilight.
"Then I say let him stay there."
"Really? He is your friend." Said Twilight.
"Exactly," said Wilson, causing Twilight to blurt out a laugh. Wilson looked at her strangely, causing her cheeks to once again go crimson.
"Sorry," she said sheepishly.
"It's okay," Wilson laughed. "Just wasn't aware he'd had that big an impact on you yet."
"Well," Twilight started slight giggling. "He has been here nearly a whole day."
Wilson shook his head and continued to chuckle and massage Twilight's shoulders. Continuing his ministrations, he extracted many 'oohs' and 'ahhs' from the mares lips as he felt her tension in her muscles begin to fade. Eventually, he felt that Twilight felt loose enough to stop the message and sit down in front of her.
"So, you going to continue the work on your own then?" asked Wilson. "Whatever the work House was helping you with was."
Twilight shrugged, "I guess so. I mean not as if anypony else can help me...." Twilight gasped and her face lit up as if an invisible lightbulb had illuminated above her head. "Wait a minute, you said you were House's friend. You aren't by any chance a doctor as well?"
Wilson nodded, "Yeah, I am. Or I was."
Twilight clapped her forehooves in excitement, "You, you couldn't help me at all could you? You're much better to deal with that House was."
Wilson stroked the back of his neck with his hooves. "I'm not sure about that, House was the genius, I'm sure I'd be next to useless compared to him."
"Oh come on, you must be good doctor if House was your friend. Please?" Twilight looked at Wilson with wide innocent eyes. The kind of look fillies give their parents to try and get their own way. Luckily. Wilson had plenty of practice resisting these looks from children in the Oncology Ward. As such, the look had no effect on him. Seeing her look had no effect, Twilight tried a different tactic.
"So, what kind of doctor are you anyway?" asked Twilight.
"An oncologist," answered Wilson.
"An oncolowhat?" asked Twilight, confused.
"A doctor who specializes in dealing with patients who have cancer." Replied Wilson.
"Hmm," Twilight hummed, "Cancer? I'm not familiar with that disease."
"It's an interesting disease," Wilson said. "It's when some of the cells of a person, or possibly pony, reproduce unnaturally and keep reproducing until they become a tumor. To put it simply, anyway."
"And the large mass of tissues becomes a problem for the patient I presume."
"In many cases, yes. Though, sometimes the tumors can be benign. Which means they cause no harm."
"Hmm, and is cancer contagious?"
"Not really. In some rare, stupidly rare, cases, you can transfer cancer from one person to another. But that requires transfer of body parts which contain cancer cells. House had a case like that once."
"That might be it!" Twilight exclaimed.
"What?" asked Wilson.
"Cancer, the Princess might have cancer."
"What makes you say that?" asked Wilson.
"Well, I'm not saying it definitely is, but it sort of fits. I mean, I've never heard of cancer before, so it can't be that common. And it makes sense that whatever the Princess has is rare. Besides, I doubt it's something contagious, none of the day guard called in sick." Replied Twilight.
"Hmm," said Wilson. "Well, if you want me to take a look at the princess, I'll do my best. Though what I know may not apply 100% to ponies."
"Just to be sure, you are 100% certified and never killed a patient due to negligence?" asked Twilight.
"Yes to the first part, and no to the second." answered Wilson
Twilight nodded a small smile on her face. "Then come this way." Twilight stood up and began to leave.
"What about House? How will he find us if he wakes up?" Wilson asked.
Twilight groaned before lighting her horn and a piece of paper appearing in a flash.
"There," Twilight said as she placed the paper on the ground in front of the book piles. "It says we've gone to see the princess. Happy?"
"It's not about being happy, House is a jerk, but a great medical mind and my friend. If it isn't cancer, he will still be of help."
"I guess," Twilighed sighed. "Anyway, lets get moving, we can't waste any time when it comes the the Princess' health."
"I'm right behind you," ejaculated Wilson.