Chapter 2:
Recuperation
Twilight awoke with a start, her eyes flying open. Awareness returned slower than consciousness though. She was apparently lying on her back with legs drawn in close to her body like a dead fly. She kept still while waiting for contact with the world.
First to register upon her senses were the creases of the bedsheet below her, felt through her coat. Next the blanket covering her and ever-so-slightly pushing her down, making her feel trapped. Then her sight: she followed a mote of dust caught in a beam of light for a while before focusing past it to study the veins and knots in the wooden planks above her. She let her gaze linger there for a moment, staring thoughtlessly up at the bedroom ceiling. The shaft of light entering her bedroom window told her she’d managed to wake up before noon. Her ears registered several sounds of hammering faintly heard from outside.
Eventually, without her characteristic determination bordering on hurry, she made walking motions with her back hooves. This took surprising amounts of effort, considering that only the blanket, covering her up to her neck, was any hindrance, but she managed to throw it off and it crumpled into a heap at the foot of the bed. Then she let her legs fall to the right. She lay on her side for a moment before scooting to the edge of the bed and placing her right front hoof on the floor.
Her leg wobbled alarmingly as she let it take some of her weight but she judged she’d manage to stand. Progress! The other three hooves followed and though they felt like taffy they supported her. She breathed excitedly and smiled for an instant. Then she noticed she was beginning to lean dangerously. She overcompensated and was for a panicky, breathless moment in danger of falling. When she managed to reach equilibrium again much of her confidence was spent. She glanced at the stairs and felt a lump of despair in her throat.
Twilight shuffled over to the landing anyway. There she sat down and surveyed the ground floor of the library. Most of the shelves were empty. Piles of books were everywhere in the room. This would have been considered normal for some days, but the stacks of paintings with their glass shattered were definitely out of the norm. Ditto the carefully gathered piles of broken pottery, sorted by color. A large crack on the wall that appeared above the front window (shattered and boarded), travelling down to the window frame and continuing below it to finally disappear into the floor, was also new.
She’d seen all this before so now it merely drew a deep sigh out of her. In the otherwise silent library the sound had enough strength to alert Spike who’d been crouching next to a pile of damaged books, matching errant pages with the correct spines and applying glue. He stood up and stared at Twilight with a mixture of joy and consternation, then he ran towards the stairs.
“Twilight, the doctor said you shouldn’t try to stand yet!”
“I don’t care, Spike. I am going stir crazy and I feel... I feel fine.”
Fine compared to someone who’d ran four times from Appaloosa to Las Pegasus without resting, at least. Much better than yesterday, in other words. Relatively fine, to put it in another way. Most definitely fine according to some definitions. She pouted glumly.
“I want some fresh air.”
Spike had reached her and looked at her with sympathy, but was still blocking the stairs down to the main hall.
“I could open the bedroom window for you. I’ll bring up some soup in a little while, and could find some books—”
He was silenced by Twilight’s hoof brought up against his lips.
“Spike. My number one assistant. Please. Help me down the stairs.”
The baby dragon bowed his head. His love and devotion was too strong to countermand Twilight even when he thought she was endangering her well-being. Still, negotiating the stairs proved a difficult task. Spike spent most of the time between Twilight and the edge of the stairs, just behind her front left leg, where he’d try and give her as much lift and support as he could. When they reached the floor Twilight collapsed, drained from the exertion. Spike leaned over her and gave her a hug before straightening up.
“Look, you are not doing any more walking today. But I’ll bring the trolley and we’ll take a walk that way, how about that?”
Twilight didn’t even lift her head. Eyes closed, damp from sweat, quivering like an alder leaf in the wind, she let her chin scrape at the floor as she slowly nodded once to signal her agreement.
The trolley was a jury-rigged cart originally meant to carry books. The shelves had been ripped out, and a low wooden box with low outwards-leaning sides had been installed in their place, making it look like a miniature wooden mining cart, except it was carrying pillows and blankets rather than ore. The low sides enabled Spike to help Twilight enter the bed-like vehicle with relative ease even now, with Twilight offering as much assistance as a wet rag. Once Twilight was comfortable and warm Spike grabbed the two handles on the back and steered the trolley towards the front door.
Outside the weather was nearly as perfect as ever. Marring the sky was a thick plume of black smoke visible on the horizon, rising slowly until it hit some invisible border and spread out. The plume didn’t mushroom too far before becoming hazy and dissipating. Twilight had studied it yesterday for as long as she’d been able to; Spike had carried one of the smaller telescopes to her and helped set it up. She knew the cloud consisted of what appeared to be volcanic ash. A hastily gathered army of pegasi ensured the ash rained down as close to its point of origin as possible, and Twilight was very glad they had discovered the ash was extremely poisonous before the plume had any opportunity to reach civilized regions. Twilight understood that the first group of pegasi to reach the cloud -they had taken no precautions, not knowing there was a danger- was in much poorer condition than herself at the moment.
Twilight was the extreme opposite of glad that Rainbow Dash had organized and led that group.
She tore her eyes away from the plume with a weak shudder and lowered her gaze. A couple of ponies were stringing a banner high from two facing houses in the street directly in front of the library’s front door. It read...
OUR HERO
TWILIGHT SPAR
...before the banner’s designers had apparently ran out of space to the sides. Which was odd, considering the street was wide enough to accommodate a much larger banner.
There was a loose crowd of ponies in front of the treehouse; neighbours, acquaintances and some strangers, and all of them were approaching the trolley. Twilight was overcome by a surge of emotion and she had clenched her eyes shut and fought an urge to cry, but she heard murmurs of heartfelt gratitude being directed at her and felt the occasional light nuzzle against her forelegs. Then Spike raised his voice.
“Sorry, ponies, but Twilight is really tired and just wishes to take some fresh air, so if you could please step back a bit?”
Twilight felt Spike start pushing the trolley again, and the murmurs fell behind. Spike muttered something about display pieces and personal space. Twilight opened her eyes and blinked away a film of moisture, letting her vision clear. Houses were passing her by as she was being carted up a slight incline towards Ponyville General Hospital.
“Spike? I’m fine. Why are we going to the hospital?”
She intended to sound reassuring, but what came out of her mouth was hardly stronger than a whisper. Fluttershy would have asked her to speak up. Spike answered in between huffing and grunting as he pushed resolutely onwards.
“I want the doctor to look you over if you keep trying to stand up when she said you shouldn’t.”
Twilight didn’t feel she had the strength of will to argue right then. A short while later, the trolley bumped the double doors to the hospital open, causing the nurse on duty to look up from his paperwork. He trotted over and greeted them.
“Hello miss Sparkle, hello Spike. Did you have an appointment or is this an extra visit?”
Spike let go of the trolley’s handles and caught his breath a moment before answering.
“No appointment. Is Doctor Foaley available?”
The nurse went back to his paperwork and pulled out a paper which he studied for a moment.
“She’s with a patient right now, though she should be ready shortly. You can wait outside her office. Let me get that for you, Spike.”
The last remark made Spike stop reaching for the trolley’s handles and nod gratefully. The nurse started pushing the trolley, and Twilight with it, down the halls. He looked at her and cleared his throat.
“I hope I’m not out of line here, but on behalf of my friends and family I’d like to say: Thank you, miss Sparkle. My sister just wouldn’t stop pestering me until I promised I’d tell you how grateful we all are for your efforts.”
“Thank you.” Twilight smiled tiredly. She'd whispered again. She wondered idly what was wrong with her voice while the trolley was pushed to a halt next to a door.
“Well, here we are; I’m sure the doctor will see you shortly. Have a good one, Spike! And...”
The nurse had turned towards Twilight and discovered that the mare had fallen asleep. He hesitated and nodded to Spike again before walking away. Spike pushed the trolley carefully and silently a bit further away from the door before sitting down in a chair and settling down to wait.
He was idly counting floor tiles as the door opened, and Doctor Foaley walked out. She glanced over at Spike before turning and holding the door open for Mrs. Cake, who was also exiting the doctor’s office, carrying one of her twin children on her back. They were apparently engaged in small talk, and Spike caught the latter half of a sentence from Mrs. Cake.
“...tiresome, and we have to keep ordering extra flour, but the little darlings seem to enjoy it so much. I just can’t figure out where they got the idea to play in it.”
The baby unicorn was sucking on a pacifier and observing her surroundings with huge eyes. When she spotted Spike she grinned hugely and started rocking back and forth, making her pacifier fall to the floor. Doctor Foaley spoke next.
“Well, medically it does no harm as long as they don’t eat it or it clogs their ears. Just make sure their ears are clean and watch out for any signs of aching tummies after they’ve played in it. If they do eat it you could consider keeping them away from flour, but I doubt they like the taste of it enough to do so anyway.”
Mrs. Cake had spotted the lost pacifier and picked it up. She smiled to the doctor as she cleaned it against a handkerchief.
“Thank you, Doctor Foaley.”
Then she reached back to place the pacifier back in Pumpkin Cake’s mouth, but the little foal kept leaning away. Pumpkin was still locking eyes with Spike and Mrs. Cake had unknowingly blocked her sight.
“Da’gn!”
Pumpkin pointed and laughed the peculiar, hyperventilating laugh of babies, causing Spike to grin back. Mrs. Cake finally noticed him.
“Oh hello, Spike! How are you today? And how is Twilight?”
The baby dragon nodded in greeting and pointed to the trolley and its inhabitant resting further along the hall.
“She’s getting better, I think, but still has almost no strength at all.”
Mrs. Cake looked at Twilight’s sleeping form with sympathy, shaking her head slowly.
“The poor dear.”
“DA’GN!”
Pumpkin shouted wildly, still rocking back and forth and pointing at Spike. Mrs. Cake grabbed Pumpkin and cradled the foal in her left front leg, shushing while replacing the pacifier. Pumpkin still had her eyes riveted on Spike.
“I’m sorry,” Mrs. Cake explained, “we’re reading through a book with pictures of various beings found in Equestria, and it has this magic box that plays the sound of the being shown if you point at a picture and pronounce the name of the creature...”
She smiled and looked away.
Spike thought, what kind of ‘sound’ would a dragon... Ah. He climbed up on a chair, raised his arms in a mock threatening fashion, grinned at Pumpkin and did his best to roar as quietly as possible, so as to not disturb Twilight. His good intentions were swiftly demolished when an appreciative Pumpkin nearly jumped out of Mrs. Cake’s cradling embrace and emitted an ear-piercing mixture of squeal and giggle, this time expelling the pacifier under a chair. Spike slapped his forehead and jumped down from his chair, searching for the pacifier. It had rolled all the way in and was resting next to the wall. He sighed and crawled to fetch it. As he did so, he heard Mrs. Cake speak again.
“Sorry about that, Twilight. Pumpkin’s picking up some of Pinkie’s moods as of late.”
He straightened out and handed the pacifier to Mrs. Cake without looking, instead gazing anxiously at Twilight.
“Did you get some rest?”
Twilight’s head was raised a bit from the pillow it had rested on and her eyes were half-closed, but she nodded mutely and yawned. Doctor Foaley nodded at her.
“Ms. Sparkle. Spike. Hello to you both. Let’s get you inside, shall we?”
The doctor walked over to Twilight’s trolley and manoeuvered it into her office, with Spike following and closing the doors behind him. Doctor Foaley walked over to a filing cabinet and opened it, picking up a thick folder before closing it again. She took the folder in her mouth over to a desk and laid it down so it fell open. Then she turned back to Spike and Twilight.
“So, what brings you here today?”
Spike took a breath and straightened.
“I’m scared that Twilight is so restless that she’s wearing herself out. I caught her standing on the top of the stairs to her bedroom today. She wanted out, but I talked her into using the trolley. She’s not going to hurt herself, is she?”
He looked at the doctor with apparent worry. Dr. Foaley raised her eyebrows and peered at a blushing Twilight.
“You managed to stand up unaided? That’s good. Would you mind if I examined you a bit?”
Twilight shook her head indicating her consent, and the doctor moved to the side of the trolley.
“Push against my hoof, please. Good. Now use your other hoof. All right, now we do the same with your hind legs. And the other one. Very good! Yes, your strength is returning I’d say. Please lie on your side.”
She waited for Twilight to do so and then pulled the patient’s top hind leg outwards until it was straight. Foaley pushed against it gently with her other hoof, in various places, until Twilight let out a sharp gasp.
“Did that hurt?”
“A little.”
Dr. Foaley nodded and returned to her desk, creasing her forehead and pursing her lips while her eyes scanned the text on some papers. Then she smiled back up at Twilight.
“I think I can speak with confidence when I give you your prognosis now: you should be fine in a week or two. A month from now and there shouldn’t be any lingering signs left. Just keep eating high-calorie foods: plenty of nuts mixed with your salad, please! But not sweets. They give energy, yes, but what you need is building materials for your body.”
A sigh of relief told of how Twilight had looked forward to hearing something like that.
“But what happened to me? Does this mean you know?”
Foaley nodded.
“I think I do. I’ve spoken to your friends, of course, but perhaps you could tell me yourself what you did when the mountains fell and the earth quaked? Just what were you planning?”
Twilight sighed and rested her head against a pillow while mumbling.
“There wasn’t really a plan.”
This made dr. Foaley rear back theatrically.
“No plan? This doesn’t sound like the Twilight Sparkle I know!”
This had the intended effect for half a second, as Twilight smiled, but then her expression became a pained grimace and eyes clenched shut.
“There just wasn’t any time. I could see the first shock wave approaching. I’d read about earthquakes, of course – great waves of force carried by the rock beneath our feet – so I thought I’d make a raft of sorts and let the waves pass by harmlessly underneath.”
Foaley shook her head.
“I haven’t read about stuff like that, so I can’t say exactly why that didn’t work. Witnesses say that when the first wave reached the edge of town it caused a huge spray of dirt and rock to burst all around it, and much of your tell-tale magic aura could be seen among the debris that wasn’t flying.”
She tilted her head and continued with incredulity in her voice.
“Did you really attempt to hold still the entire foundation of Ponyville?”
Twilight drew a shuddering breath and nodded silently.
Foaley nodded thoughtfully.
“I don’t pretend to know how magic works. I’m no unicorn. But I’ve read enough about injury while casting to have a general idea. What you used is called telekinesis, or TK for short, right? It’s a weird thing, and I just can’t wrap my head around some of the principles. Like, when you lift something with your TK, it can move and struggle freely unless you specifically hold it still. What I mean is, the object’s movements don’t interfere with your TK. But how about striking the object while you are holding it still?”
“Well, if the blow is weak then it won’t matter much. It might push the object around. More than that and I’m told it’s much the same as if you’d strike my horn. I’d lose concentration.”
“Not quite, I believe. From the journals I’ve read I’ve learned that unicorns reflexively strengthen their TK on an object if they perceive it being struck. Take that and combine it with the fact that the stronger your grip is the stronger your sensation of it is, and we have some – eh, interesting – effects.”
Dr. Foaley nodded towards Twilight.
“What happened to you only takes place when a unicorn makes a great effort to hold something still with their TK and the object is struck with very great force indeed. Here’s what I think happened: as the waves struck against the sections of ground you tried to hold still, you felt it and the reflex to hold tighter kicked in. This caused the next wave to be felt even more keenly, causing you to involuntarily grip tighter still... and so on. You ended up with a kind of magic cramp where you couldn’t relinquish your grip even if you wanted to. With me so far?”
Twilight shuddered and nodded once. “But why am I so weak?”
“Well, any magic tires you out a bit, right? And when you do lots of it you get tired fast. But this time you couldn’t stop. Your horn is very efficient, of course; it uses some kind of energy source totally different from what the muscles and the rest of your brain use. Fact is, we’re not sure where all that energy comes from. But we do know it somehow comes from your body. Lifting something with your horn is much less taxing than lifting the same thing with, say, your hooves, but both actions do strain your body to some extent. And now you were gripping countless tons of dirt and rock as it was pounded from the side and from below by forces that I just can’t imagine. And you couldn’t stop.”
Twilight swallowed dryly while Dr. Foaley shuffled some papers before continuing.
“This kind of magical cramp has an official name, reinforcing aura feedback, and it has been recorded before, but it’s always been with less powerful magics. That’s how we know the process is much like a very rapid form of starvation once your magic reserves have emptied. You lose fat, you grow weaker and if it goes on long enough even your bones start to get brittle. It could even be fatal.”
The doctor's voice lost its lecturing tone and softened.
“Twilight, you had a rather close shave; I think it got to your bones by the time the last wave rolled past and your grip loosened. But seeing as you are already managing to stand, it sounds like you are bouncing right back.”
Twilight felt tears on her face. Hearing Dr. Foaley speak about it had caused her to relive it vividly. The fear and utter disbelief as the first wave approached. The disorientation as she felt like her brain was ringing like a bell after it had struck. The mounting panic at not being able to stop. The utter despair as she blacked out. She felt Spike’s arms hugging her waist.
“It’s all right, Twilight. You’re gonna be all right.”