The Incident
What Now?
Matt woke up with a start, he was drenched in sweat from head to toe and his skin was flushed as red as a tomato.
"Water. I need some water." He croaked out through his sandpaper coated throat. The words seemed to burn their way out.
The poor human shifted in the bed to try and get out of it without his face getting very acquainted the hard wood floor. He was able to sit up and get is feet on the ground this time but he still needed to use the bed for support as he walked to the door. Every step the man took made it feel like there was more fire running through his veins. As Matt reached for the door knob his vision was starting to blur; it almost looked like a faint blue aura was surrounding him. When he opened the door it was as if all of strength left him at one and he collapsed in a heap onto the living room floor.
"Matt!" Fluttershy screamed, "Twilight come quick Matt just collapsed! I think he passed out!"
"What!?" Twilight shouted as she popped right next to the prone human, "This so not good, this very very bad".
"What's wrong with him?"
"He is suffering from magical burnout. It's what happens when a magical being summons up a very large amount of mana but never uses it for a spell."
"Can we help him?"
"Yes, thankfully, I will have to siphon off the excess magic until it reaches safe levels", Twilight grimaced "but it won't be pleasant for either of us."
"I'll go find Spike and have him send a letter to the princess right away."
"Thanks Fluttershy."
With that the yellow pony ran out of the room to go get the small dragon while Twilight stated the process of siphoning the magic.
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The door to the library flew open and a very concerned looking yellow pegasus flew straight in disturbing the small dragon reading comic books.
"Hey! What's the big deal Fluttershy!"
"Matt's in trouble! Twilight needs you to send a letter to the princess right now!"
"Oh man! hang on let me get my pen," the small dragon rooted around in the papers scattered by Fluttershy's enthusiastic entrance, "Here we go. Okay what did Twilight want to say?"
"She said that Matt was suffering from some she called Magical burnout, and that she needed the princess as soon as possible!"
"Okay sent!"
"Quick Spike lets hurry back I'm sure that poor Matt needs all the help he can get."
"Right lets get going"
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When Spike and Fluttershy made it back to her cottage Twilight looked like the one needing the most help. The purple unicorn's mane was getting frazzled and her eyes were long past bloodshot.
"Oh dear, Twilight is there anything we can to help?"
"Yeah you don't look so good there Twilight maybe you should take a break."
"No!" The purple unicorn almost yelled at her friends, "If I stop Matt might not be able to pull through this."
"I thought you said that you just had to take off the extra magic why would taking a little break cause so much damage?"
"You don't understand, He keeps summoning more mana!"
"Even while he's unconscious?" Spike asked.
"Yes, and I can hardly keep up anymore!" Twilight lifted her head to look at her friends, "We need to keep him stable until the princess gets here. Spike I need you to go get some water and some towels so we can keep him cool."
"Yes Ma'am!" the little dragon salted and marched his way into the kitchen.
"Fluttershy I am going to need you to close all the blinds and get some zap-apple jam."
"I understand the blinds but what will the jam do?"
"Since zap-apples have magical properties they should be able to absorb some of the excess magic, and right now every little bit helps."
"Okay, I guess that makes sens-" Suddenly the room was illuminated by a very bright flash.
"Twilight! What's going on?" Celestia asked as soon as her hoofs hit the floor.
"Matt is suffering from the worst case of magical burnout I have ever seen! And he just keeps summoning more mana!" Twilight was frantic at this point and was about to pass-out herself.
"Here let me take over Twilight, If I remove all of the mana at once then it should stop, at least for a little while."
A bright glow appeared around the princess's horn and once again a bright flash filled the room. Matt's body relaxed and it lokked like he might almost melt into the floor. The princess; however, looked exhausted.
"Hey Twilight, I got the water. Whoa, what happened?"
"The princess arrived and helped Matt," Fluttershy quietly explained.
"So is he going to be alright?"
"That remains to be seen," Celestia answered, "He will recover from this but we need to keep it from happening again."
"What should we do princess?"
"I think, Twilight, that you just received your first student."
"What!? But I don't know how to teach. Isn't there something else we can do?"
"Twilight you know that the only way to prevent serious magic burnout is with proper training. You are a very gifted magic user and you are becoming an even better friend. Treat this as if you were helping one of your friends and you will do fine"
"Wow, my very first student and he isn't even from this planet!"