I awoke feeling like a ton of bricks had come crashing down on two parts of my body. I felt a pain lance through my back as I shifted and a dull throbbing within my skull. A deep rushing roar permanently filled my hearing, which should have been a cause for concern but I felt strangely at peace.
I tried opening my mouth to moan pitifully but my jaw protested the point by jabbing me repeatedly, giving me the uncomfortable feeling of pain in both my jaw AND my ear for some reason.
Ow, ow, ow!
Yeah, make that a ton of bricks on three parts of my body.
My eyes wandered around the room, settling on a small black form curled up at the side of my bed in a chair too big for her. I smiled, instantly regretting it (actually not really it was just so great that Pseudo was here!) when pain shot through my face again. I grunted and Pseudo immediately jolted then sat up.
“You’re okay!” she yelped, bounding up. She was about to give me a hug but held back, unsure.
“Oh”, I croaked, ignoring the pain in my determination to say something. I carefully minced my words, so that it came out as cheerful as I could manage. “You found out you can’t touch me?”
“That’s okay”, I continued, giving her a lopsided grin, forcing it despite the lancing pain. “I’m sorry I can’t give you a hug.”
Pseudo shook her head vigorously, sending her wispy blue mane whipping around her head.
“No!” she squeaked, placing her hooves on my left hand. “It’s not like that! They said since I wasn’t connected to the Tree, I wouldn’t be affected by the null field... I was just afraid of hurting you.”
She gave me a timid smile.
“I actually wanted to thank you for helping me”, she whispered, giving me a gentle hug.
“Thank you”, she sighed, nuzzling the side of my cheek. She pulled back, blushing.
I gave her a worried look.
“Actually, here I thought I was causing your death… what happened?”
Pseudo gazes nervously at the ground.
“It has, somewhat to do with you- “ she quickly waved her hooves in front of her in negation when my gaze fell “-n-no, it wasn’t your fault!”
She took a deep breath and composed herself.
“Actually, it wouldn’t normally be a problem, being around you. Usually I can pull emotions in the ambient air and store it but if I touch you or I’m extremely close to you I can’t really do that. All I need to do is walk away from you a bit and I can get a decent meal.”
Pseudo cast her eyes down in shame. Her wings flittered.
“I, uhm, was really hungry, I didn’t keep up with my passive feeding. So I… tried pulling some emotions from you, just to see what you felt about me”, Pseudo admitted, she played with the bed sheets next to her hooves.
“When I tried pulling emotions from you I forgot you were a special case and my magic got pulled instead.”
She paused, taking another deep breath to steady herself. I waited patiently for her to continue, unsure of what I was supposed to feel.
“Changeling magic is a type of free magic, it’s linked partially to our souls. So when it started draining me, it affected my soul and misaligned it with my body. My physical body couldn’t handle it and I went into magical arrest”, she explained, scrunching up the bed sheets beneath her hooves.
“Okay”, I replied, wincing. I wasn’t really getting the whole picture but this was something important to Pseudo, even if I didn’t fully understand it.
“Y-you don’t get it!” she stammered, frustrated. “O-Oh, I-I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to yell at you.”
She grumbled to herself for a few moments before continuing.
“It’s just that…” she squirmed. “I’msorryfortryingtotakeyouremotionswithoutpermission!”
I blinked at her, giving her a blank look.
“Oh, why is this so hard?”
Pseudo gave me a meek look.
“I’m sorry for trying to take your emotions without your permission”, she enunciated slowly, hanging her head.
I shrugged, but cut it short when I felt my back act up.
“It’s okay Pseudo”, I replied, trying to ignore the excessive pain welling from my jaw.
“But if I hadn-“
I cut her off with a wave of my hand.
“Pseudo just sit here and accept my forgiveness”, I mumbled, feeling tired and drawn.
Pseudo obediently stayed where she was, not saying anything. After a few moments of silence, my mind started drifting and I was about to enter the deep embrace of sleep.
Before I drifted off, I heard Pseudo one last time.
“Thank you”, she breathed, as I drifted off to my dreams.
-----
The second time I awoke I was feeling much better. A nurse had been there was I blearily clambered my way back to the land of the living and I found out she was administering me a type of horse tranquiliser that numbed pain. I was glad that it worked just as well on humans, but I was a bit leery of what side effects there may be.
“Oh, you’re awake”, I turned to see Luna giving me a relieved look from the side of my bed.
“Hey there, Luna”, I greeted casually. Those painkillers worked really well for my jaw.
Luna smiled at me, clapping her hooves together.
“Splendid! Thou worried me for a moment when thou had passed out from helping young Pseudo”, she remarked, slipping into the older syntax. I realised she was really worried about me.
“Aww that’s sweet Luna, you’re a pretty cool mare”, I babbled inanely.
Hang on, that’s not what I wanted to say at all.
Luckily, Luna didn’t seem like she took offence.
“I see Equestrian medicine may have been stronger than your body can take”, she commented drily.
We both chuckled at that, my head lolling.
She excused herself, seeing me blearily try and stay awake.
“I can see you are tired”, she spoke gently. “I will see you later then, when you are feeling of fit health.”
I wanted her to stay to talk a bit more and maybe find out what happened to my Synch, which I couldn’t see anywhere, but I couldn’t move my tired muscles and Luna had left quickly, closing the room door with a small click.
My eyelids betrayed me and I fell into another sleep.
Being injured wasn’t fun.