The world exploded into a blinding flash of light. Not light of any particular color, but in every color, all at once and separate, mixed with several that did not exist and could not exist—along with every sound possible, ranging from those so quiet and low as to be imperceptible as well as those of dizzying, deafening volume. The burst of energy tore its way into the outer depths universe, spreading and spilling in every direction and condensing, just as the first energy and magic of the universe had resonated into strings that tied themselves into the first hadrons and the one electron they all shared as it sped its way through time in every direction all at once. As this detonated inside Derpy’s mind, she sat up suddenly.
The room erupted with a shockwave of minor residual magic. Sparkler, who had been leaning on the white linen of Derpy’s bed, woke up with a cry as she was nearly knocked back out of her chair. Derpy turned sharply, confused at her presence.
“Sparkler. Why are you here? You are supposed to be at work in the Crystal Empire.”
“M...mom!” cried Sparkler, her eyes wide with surprise and quickly welling with tears. “You’re awake!”
“Ostensibly, yes,” replied Derpy. She looked around the room, realizing that she was in a hospital room rather than a surgical one. “This is a recovery room. I’ve been unconscious.” She turned back to her eldest daughter. A daughter who stared at her with relief—and an unknown shock that Derpy could not yet understand but that her mind was racing to comprehend. “Long enough for you to get from the Crystal Empire to here. How long?”
“Mom, you were in a coma, you should lie back down.”
“I do not feel a need to. How long was I out, Sparkler?”
“Two weeks and three days. I came in on the Crystal Express as soon as I heard, I...” Her eyes filled with tears again. “They said they didn’t know if you would ever wake back up, I didn’t know if...if...”
“Oh, Sparkler. I’m sorry.” Derpy spread her front hooves, and Sparkler wrapped her in a hug of such great pressure that Derpy distinctly felt it in her still-healing cranium. “Too tight!”
“Oop! Sorry, mom!”
“No, no, it’s okay. I’m fine.”
Derpy suddenly heard a squeak and something clattering to the floor. She turned sharply to see a wide-eyed nurse pony standing at the door.
“Doctor!” cried the nurse. “She actually woke up!”
“That’s impossible!” called a voice from down the hallway—followed by the patter of sprinting hooves, and then Dr. Horse’s face poking in from the side of the doorway, his eyes widening at the sight of Derpy.
“By Celestia’s hindquarters, she is awake!”
He trotted into the room, grabbing a stethoscope more out of habit than any real diagnostic need. “Ms. Doo, how do you feel?”
“Hungry?” Derpy paused, trying to think what she was feeling. “Actually...I don’t really feel any different than I did before. So...the same?” This immediately disheartened her. It was apparent that the procedure had failed—and worse, her recklessness had made Sparkler cry.
Dr. Horse appeared to understand the expression on her face. “There were...unexpected complications,” he explained. “The brain scarring was more extensive than I had predicted, and the shard failed to integrate...at first. It fell into a chaotic output state which required a hard reset into its magical programming—”
“By switching the mode to maximal capacity to hard-reset it to my brain,” added Derpy. “Instead of a slow process, you had to turn it all the way up to keep it from taking my brain down with it.”
“Well...yes...but...how did you know that?”
“I was there. And it’s super obvious. Also I can sort of...tell it’s still in there?” She shook her head. “I don’t know how, though. I probably would know if it had actually performed its function, but it looks like I’m still stuck with my previous mental deficiencies.” She sighed. “And I made my daughter scared.”
Dr. Horse looked to the nurse, and to Sparkler. They all had the same shocked expression on their faces.
“What?” asked Derpy, feeling her voice quavering. “What’s wrong?”
“You need to...never mind, I will show you.” Dr. Horse walked to side of the room near some drawers and disconnected a mirror held over them. He levitated it over to Derpy and held it up to himself, as if looking at his own reflection. He paused. “This, too, has a risk, but...”
“But what?”
He lowered the mirror, and Derpy looked at herself, surprised by her new short haircut and the hint of a healing scar that circled much of her head—and then her heart seemed to freeze as she realized something else.
A gray mare was staring back at her with a pair of wide, yellow eyes—eyes that were now looking exactly the same direction.
She had been underped.