Chapter 1: Complications
“This isn’t good. This isn’t good. This isn’t good,” she repeated.
The hallucinations were getting stronger and stronger. “This isn’t good. Oh my Celestia, THIS ISN’T GOOD!”
The trees slowly reached out to grab her. “Stay away from me! AHH!” Twilight hastily shoved a dozen or so of the flowers into her saddlebag. The ground was rippling like water currents. She could barely run straight.
Twilight heard loud crunching and saw that the trees were actually unrooting themselves from the ground. They advanced towards Twilight. The entire world shook from the trees’ heavy footsteps.
The violent shaking threw her balance off and she fell flat on her face. There was a small scrape on the bridge of her nose. “It’s nothing,” she thought. A tiny bit of blood oozed out.
She continued to run from the menacing trees but as she ran, more blood came out of the scrape. The stream became more solid and it came out much faster. A minute more of running made the blood come out like a powerful waterfall. The forest was actually being flooded by her blood.
It went from knee to neck height in a matter of seconds. She was swept off her hooves and was now being carried away in a rapid of red water. The walking trees were out of sight and Twilight felt oddly at ease despite the fact that she was being carried by the water at subsonic velocities. It was probably because the trees were gone. The bloody water also happened to be warm. It was almost like a hot tub.
She let her body drift with the water, she let her body become one with the water. Twilight’s body melted and became a liquid. She looked up at the sky and watched the stars dance with the moon. The water changed from a blood red to a relaxing blue. She felt so... relaxed. Twilight’s eyelids felt heavy. They dropped lower and lower until her eyes were completely closed.
“This is... good,” she said quietly before falling asleep.
Twilight woke up soaking wet with a gasp. “What am I doing here?” she asked herself.
She shook off the water like a dog and looked at the river in front of her. The sun was slowly rising over the horizon. The Everfree Forest was puny in the distance. Before she could figure out what happened, her stomach growled loudly and she decided to go get something to eat. It’d be much easier to think with a full stomach.
Twilight realized that she had no clue where she was. There were no landmarks other than the river and the Everfree Forest. The rest of the landscape was relatively flat. She looked at the Everfree more closely. To the left of it was a tiny spec. She couldn’t see any details but she could at least tell that it was a town.
Twilight conjured up a pair of oddly shaped binoculars. The lens were badly distorted but they still zoomed in on objects. Twilight said something about how bad her magic was then started looking through her binoculars.
She found the town hall and Sweet Apple Acres. This was enough to identify the town as Ponyville. It was at least a dozen miles away. “No biggie, a few teleportation spells and I’ll be there in no time.”
She concentrated as hard as she could but the results were disappointing. She was too hungry to teleport. Twilight groaned and began walking.
Twilight was literally dragging herself along the ground by the time she made it to Sweet Apple Acres. Her mane was disheveled, her coat was covered in dirt, and she generally looked like crap. Luckily for her, Applejack was out bucking apples and caught sight of her friend.
“Twilight! What the hay happened to you?” Applejack helped Twilight back onto her hooves.
“I... I don’t know.” Twilight caught her breath. “I need food.” She barely managed to finish her last sentence before passing out.
“Twilight.” The unicorn turned over onto her other side and covered her ears.
“Twilight!” Now she moaned.
“TWILIGHT!”
Twilight jumped at the sudden loud noise. “AHH! What?!” She saw Pinkie’s familiar face and calmed down immediately. “Oh, it’s just you.”
“Twilight! You’re awake. Ah’ got so worried when you passed out on mah farm. You’re feeling alright now?” Applejack stood next to Pinkie.
Twilight rubbed her head with her hoof. “My mind is a bit foggy, but otherwise I’m feeling fine. Where am I exactly?”
“You’re in the Ponyville hospital. We’re going to keep you in here for a day or two so that we can monitor you,” said a Doctor in the doorway.
Twilight continued rubbing her head with her hooves. “I don’t get it... Ow, my head hurts. I appreciate you guys coming to check up on my but can you come back another time? I need some rest.” Twilight groaned in pain.
“Will do Twilight, get better soon okay?” Applejack said before leaving the room.
“You just stay here and relax! I got everything taken care of. Thanks for the flowers by the way! I’m baking cupcakes with them right now and when their done I’m going to give them out to everypony so that they can tell me what they think of them! I’m so super duper excited are you excited?” Pinkie didn’t even take a single breath as she spoke.
“Another time, okay Pinkie?” said Twilight with a smile. Even though listening to Pinkie physically hurt, she still cheered her up.
“No problem! I’ll make sure to throw you a big party when you get better!” Pinkie bounced out of the room.
Twilight chuckled at Pinkie’s antics. “Flowers... Where have I heard about these flowers,” Twilight pondered as she drifted back to sleep.
A few fliers were posted in Ponyville that read “Free cupcakes at Sugarcube Corner!”
A crowd of ponies gathered around the entrance. Among the crowd included Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity. Pinkie was inside monitoring the cupcakes. The oven dinged. Pinkie pulled out the tray of cupcakes and placed them on the counter to cool.
Twilight Sparkle remained asleep. She is completely unaware of the chaos that was about to commence.