A Dubious Welcome

by Maonyman

CH3: Hey You, You're Finally Awake

Twilight Sparkle groaned.

She was cold, tired, nauseous, drowsy, and uncomfortable, but more than anything else, she hurt. Every part of her body throbbed with pain and her head hurt worst of all. She could hardly think through the agony stabbing into her forehead.

However, to her surprise, the pain faded rapidly and it was only a few seconds before it settled into a dull, tolerable ache. She tentatively opened her eyes and found herself in what appeared to be some sort of kitchen. There was a bowl of food beside her and she could see a small collection of clear vials on the counter behind it. Two of them contained what looked suspiciously like her own fur so she leaned a little closer and... yes, that was definitely her fur, and two more seemed to contain vials of blood, presumably hers.

Clearly this was a collection of medical samples from her body for later study. She felt indignant and a little violated, of course, but on the other hoof she understood all too well the urge to study and analyze anything new and unusual.

But where was her doctor now? Her recollection was vague due to the shock and pain, but she could clearly remember that strange creature with its rich and oddly soothing voice. Her head still throbbing, she slowly turned to look behind her and--

"Oh... oh no, nonono..."

She scrambled upright with her two good hooves and twisted around to get a better look.

Her doctor was slumped back against the counter across from her, the charred remains of a precision scalpel still clenched in his right... er, claw? There were pale violet lines streaking along his foreleg up to his neck, his mouth hung loosely open, and his eyes were glowing a brilliant, solid white.

"Buck, buck, what did you do?"

But even as she asked, she realized what must have happened. Either not knowing the danger or believing himself safe, he must have tried to collect a sample of the pure magical essence in the core of her horn.

"Moon-blasted fool, even unicorns don't really understand..." she muttered nervously to herself. She slid toward the edge of the table and resisted the urge to look down, her uninjured wing spread wide for balance. It wasn't a long fall or anything, but in her injured state it was unlikely she would be able to get back up and try again before it was too late.

She took a deep breath to calm herself, reared up on her hind hooves with a wince of pain, then lunged forward. One forehoof thudded into the creature's chest and she let out a nervous whinny as she began to pitch sideways, but by desperately flapping her one wing, and with a bit of pressure from her injured foreleg, she managed to keep herself upright.

"Alright... phew... Tartarus, I hope this still works."

She stretched her neck out to touch the edge of her horn to the creature's head and concentrated as the magic began to flow. Sparks shot out of the broken tip, causing her to wince from the uncomfortable surge of raw energy and feel as if she were back in magic kindergarten again with no control over her magic, but she bore down on her focus, refusing to let such a simple spell go awry. After what seemed like ages, she finally felt a trickle of energy flow back into her horn as she absorbed the excess power that raged unchecked through the creature's mind.

"Ohhh..." the creature groaned, then abruptly, "The--FUCK!"

Something slammed into Twilight's barrel and she was thrown violently backward, only just catching herself before she slid off the far end of the table-thing she had woken up on. Thankfully she had landed on her uninjured side.

She heard him say, "Oh shit, s-sorry! I... god, I don't... w-what...?" and lifted her head to see him staring wide-eyed at the pink lines slowly fading from his foreleg.

"Don't worry, you'll be okay now." He looked up at her, his eyes wild and not quite able to focus on her. She continued, "Whatever you saw can't hurt you anymore."

"The fuck WAS that!?"

Twilight shook her head, then winced as her headache spiked from the motion and she felt a wave of nausea and weakness. She gave him a somewhat strained smile.

"I'll explain later. Right now I need you to get a hold of yourself. I am still your patient, right?"

The sound of her weak, shaky voice seemed to get his attention more than her actual words. He rubbed his face vigorously and took several deep breaths before looking up at her again with a sheepish smile.

"Sorry. Okay... good grief, and I just threw you aside?"

He leaned over her nervously, but she grinned and gave him a too-casual shrug.

"Eh, I landed on my good side."

He gave a dry chuckle at that, then carefully slid her back to the center of the table.

"I'm, uh..." he said hesitantly, "Well, I usually work with animals, so I'm not really used to patients that talk to me."

Twilight furrowed her brows in confusion and almost felt like being offended, but decided they could talk about that later. Her doctor was the last person she needed to be antagonizing right now.

"So you, uh... I assume you're dizzy, nauseous, headache, sleepy?" She carefully nodded her head and he continued, "Yes, well... you obviously have a concussion and normally I'd say you need to sleep it off immediately, but uh..."

He turned and fetched something from what appeared to be some sort of frozen container.

"Well, to be honest," he said as he turned back to her, "I've got no fuckin' clue what to do with this thing and I was hoping seeing as you can talk, maybe you could explain to me how this thing heals?"

Twilight looked down at what he held and gasped, tears springing to her eyes as she saw the broken fragment of her livelihood, her special talent, her dear and precious horn.

"Oh my... thank Celestia you found it! I... we hurried off so quick and.. y-you were so quiet I thought..."

She closed her eyes as she struggled not to cry from the intense relief. She had been trying so hard not to think about it, fearing it was lost forever but...

Twilight suddenly looked up and gave him a broad, teary-eyed smile, almost giggling at his comically confused expression.

"Thank you! Just... thank you so much! You have no idea how important it is and what this means to me and..." she trailed off as he glanced furtively at the top of her horn, "Um, r-right. Okay, just, uh... just make sure it's clean, line it up with my horn, and secure it in place. My body will do the rest. It is magical, after all.

He gave her an odd look before carefully cleaning both ends of the break.

She stopped him just before he set it in place and said, "Um, Doctor? The broken piece... w-well, the core is safe now. You can take a, um... a sample."

His face immediately twisted into a guilty cringe, but she touched his shoulder with a hoof to stop him from turning away.

"No, it's okay, I understand, really. I... I probably would have done the same thing in your hooves."

Looking down at the horn fragment in his hoof-paw-thing, he let out a weary sigh and slowly picked up another scalpel.

"You're certain?" he asked, looking up at her just before the knife touched the dim, lifeless material.

"I promise, Doctor. The energy comes from me, not the horn."

He nodded and, with even more precision than most unicorns could manage, scooped an incredibly tiny sliver of the core into a vial like the ones she had noticed earlier, scribbling a label onto a little sticker which he then placed across the cap and down the side of the bottle.

"Tamper-resistant labels?"

The question seemed to surprise him, but he nodded.

"I've been recording everything too," he said, gesturing to an odd device on his chest, "No way anyone would believe me otherwise," then as an afterthought he muttered, "Not quite sure I believe it myself..."

Twilight didn't respond as she needed to concentrate while he slowly pressed the broken fragment into place. She made a conscious effort and pushed the magic out, just like she had read, giving it the chance to reinvigorate the dead core and begin the healing process. In theory, her body should handle the rest from there.

She felt a small pang of sympathy and sadness for Fizzlepop and her permanent disfigurement. After all, she was the only reason Twilight had researched healing a broken horn in the first place, but unfortunately her research had revealed that a horn could only be repaired if it was still mostly intact. They had excavated an enormous area in and around the cave where Berrytwist had been injured as a filly, but eventually had been forced to concede that the missing piece of her horn was gone forever.

Her doctor securing the broken tip with some sort of adhesive bandage brought her back to the present and she relaxed as she felt the life slowly returning to her horn.

"Oh good, it actually worked..."

He frowned with sudden concern and she waved an exasperated hoof at his expression.

"Don't look at me like that, I've read all about it! I've just never actually known of it being done. It's not like horns break every day, you know."

"No, I don't know."

Surprised by his sharp tone, she glanced up at him then averted her gaze.

"Um... right, I suppose you wouldn't."

He stepped back and she struggled to sit up with her injured leg, feeling strangely abashed and unable to meet his eyes.

"Well..." he began in a low voice, "Since you're no longer dying and you haven't run away yet..." His tone suddenly became gentle and friendly, "How's about some introductions, eh?"

She looked up into his charming grin as he extended a hoof-paw toward her and said, "My name's Doctor Mous, but you can call me Anon."

Thinking this was some sort of greeting ritual, she slowly extended her hoof to mirror his own foreleg, then jumped in surprise when he grabbed it and gently moved it up and down.

"You seemed just as surprised as I was when you saw me, so I guess you don't know what I am either? Well, I'm a 'human,' a highly-evolved kind of ape or monkey."

She nodded awkwardly, then tried to respond in kind, "Um... W-Well, my name is Twilight. Twilight Sparkle, that is. I'm a unicorn... er, well, an alicorn princess, really. I'm a pony, like a pegasus or an earth pony... or I guess a normal unicorn. You know, without the wings. Somepony told me once we're descended from 'hore-says' but... well, I couldn't find a source for that anywhere, not even in the Canterlot Royal Library, and I mean, if it's not there, where would it be?"

She giggled nervously, then the room suddenly veered crazily and the human lurched forward to catch her before she could topple onto her side.

"Riiight, yeah, the concussion. That's, uh, that's kind of important. Here, come on."

His forelegs wrapped around her barrel and she let out a faint whinny of protest, but her head felt like it was rolling around without her and she didn't have the strength to resist. He slowly carried her into a dark room and gently laid her down in a bed that was bigger, warmer, and more comfy than anything she had ever felt in her life. She realized he was quietly speaking and tried to concentrate on his voice.

"I don't have a guest bed set up, so just sleep in my bed for now, okay? I'll wake you up in a few hours with water and a bit of food. You just relax and try not to think too hard so your brain can recover."

Twilight mumbled something that may have vaguely resembled words, then promptly fell asleep.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

What’s “/AiE/”?

[Comet_Chaser]

11644805
Pretty sure it stands for "Anon in Equestria" though I could be wrong

[Comet_Chaser]

Really liking this so far, def going into my tracking list.... along with the 450 others lol

[Xanderfox]

The horn injury was clearly the biggest treat, Alicorns are immortal or at least ageless and should regenerated quickly, I assume it's if their magic flow is working properly. Reattaching Twilight's horn tip probably saved her life buy letting her body heal internal injuries.

[Poparakelis]

The author seems to be nerfing magic, really, I don't know why people put such ridiculous limitations on healing

[clerfamerg]

11646148

It's not really much of a hurt/comfort fic if the character hurting just instantly heals themselves. Use your brain.

[doctor_n]

"My name's Doctor Mous, but you can call me Anon."

Ok, that is a very good line.