I groaned as I slowly came to, my eyes creaking open as I shifted around in bed. It eventually dawned on my sleep-addled mind that I had fallen asleep on top of Twilight’s guest room bed, not in it. And that her guest room bed isn’t this narrow. And that the walls in her guest room aren’t this color.

And that I’m in a different room. Yes, I am that slow.

Isn’t it so odd when you wake up in a different place then when you’d fallen asleep? No, nobody agree with that. It’s not odd. It’s fucking unsettling. I don’t mean that ‘you fell asleep on the couch when you were ten and a parent carried you to your bed’ thing either. I mean waking up somewhere you’d never been.

The walls were painted a deep purple, and the floor was comprised of pale blue and white tiles. I couldn’t see much more of the room, given my position, but like I said, waking up somewhere I’ve never been was unsettling for me, so much so that I wasn’t exactly focused on taking in the small details of the room.

I shot up in bed, thoroughly surprised in the change of surroundings from when I had fallen asleep.

Hell, did I even fall asleep in her guest room? I don’t remember…

Those thoughts were halted when I finally noticed Twilight. She was sitting, asleep, in a chair that was turned towards my bedside. I’d never seen a pony sleep whilst upright in a chair…though I suppose that is a rather specific sight. Maybe not for Equestria. Just on the whole.

I briefly thought about waking up Twilight and asking her where I was, why I was here, etcetera, but then I pretty much stopped thinking altogether when I felt a blistering ache in my skull. My hand instinctively went to the side of my head, and I let out an involuntary groan of pain as the ache tore through me.

You know the origin story of the goddess Athena? The one where she’s inside of Zeus’ head, stabbing at the innards of his cranium with a spear?

Yeah, it felt a bit like that. That analogy didn’t really give me much comfort at the time, given the manner in which Hephaestus got Athena out of Zeus’s head. I like my skull the way it is, thank you very much.

I fell back down in the bed, both of my hands gripping my head. It was as if there was an explosion wreaking my brain, and my hands were making a feeble attempt to contain the blast. An intense ringing filled my ears, and all other sounds were absent.

My eyes were closed shut, but I could still see images flashing before them. They looked so real, I felt as if I could reach out and touch them. Not that I’d want to.

Jenny’s battered body.

Summer’s seething glare.

Scootaloo’s furious face.

Maud’s first tentative smile.

Twilight’s blinding magical glow.

Pinkie’s tearful eyes.

I must have been screaming. Otherwise, Twilight wouldn’t have been able to shove the pills in my mouth, nor would she have been awake to do so. They fell down my throat, nearly choking me. I felt water rush into my mouth, and I swallowed greedily, the pills unclogging my throat. Moments later, the images faded, and with it, the pain.  

“…ter! Hunter, say something, please!” Twilight’s cries overcame the now fading ringing in my ears. Both of her hooves pressed against my shoulder, shaking me, desperate to get a positive response out of me.

I was a bit busy at the moment. One of my hands fell to my chest as I was trying to catch my breath. My heart was beating at an alarming rate, and I was coughing profusely.

Waking up in an unfamiliar place is unpleasant. Getting what can be mercifully labeled as a ‘headache’, experiencing stressful flashbacks, and nearly choking to death is significantly worse. Both of them aren’t exactly optimal for the start of a day.

“W-Water!” I eventually choked out. I almost immediately felt a glass press to my lips, and I gulped the water within down desperately. My cough attack subsided, the choking sensation gone.

After that horribleness was done with, I focused on breathing, trying to calm myself down, and to slow down my furious heart. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. Just repeat that about ten times and you’ll get an idea of how long I was just trying to regulate my breathing. It took a while.

I finally opened my eyes, the ceiling of…well…wherever I was, comforting me. I was here, wherever here was, not in Scootaloo’s house, or Twilight’s castle, or Sugar Cube Corner, or outside of the Crusader’s clubhouse. I was here.

With Twilight.

I strained to turn my head to face her. She was out of her chair, standing right next to the bed. Her eyes were shut closed, and she was breathing shakily, as if she was about to fully burst into sobs, but was holding herself together.

Darkened lines in her fur told me that she had been crying, that tears had run down her face and neck. I realized that she had placed a hoof on my hand.

I could see that she was hurting. Yeah, I wasn’t exactly in a great state either, but she was hurting.

My other hand moved down from the side of my head and onto her hoof. I squeezed it reassuringly, the hairs on her hoof running between my fingers.

“What…w-what was that?” I asked weakly, still feeling a bit shaky after…that.

Twilight finally opened her eyes as she turned to me, revealing her red tinged eyes. She took a breath, and her lips shuddered. She closed her mouth, curling her lips in. She was obviously having a bit of trouble collecting herself, but I let her take her time.

She opened her mouth, hanging it open for a moment before taking the jump.

“W-Well…” she began before licking her lips nervously. “You’re suffering from m-magic withdrawal.”

“What?”

She turned away and swallowed, staring at the wall for a few moments before returning her gaze.

“When I teleported us from…um…to my castle, I-I didn’t really think about how far we were traveling.” She paused before adding, “Five miles. A-Approximately.”

I paled at that bit of info. We’d only ever teleported a few feet in our meetings, and even that gave me some pretty bad nausea. But that headache was something else, something far above simple sickness.

“And when the magic entered your body, the effects weren’t too severe. A-After we teleported, you said that you felt woozy, and that you needed to lie down. The magic began to dissipate rapidly after you fell asleep, and…a-and…”

Twilight shut her eyes and lowered her head.

Oh God, what the hell happened?

“Sparklez?” I asked hesitantly. She shuddered before lifting her head back up and opening her eyes. She wouldn’t meet my own.

“Oh Celestia, Hunter, the screams…I-I thought you were having a nightmare, a terrible, terrible nightmare, but I-I couldn’t wake you, a-and by the time I recognized the symptoms and connected the dots, y-you were so pale and your skin was so cold. I-I thought…I thought I was too late.”

Twilight’s eyes were brimming with tears, her floodgates nearly open. I lifted my hand from her hoof and ran it down the side of her neck. Words aren’t exactly my forte, and in my previous line of work, you really get to understand how simple physical contact can calm someone down.

“Its okay, Sparklez,” I said quietly. “I’m not gone. Not by a long shot. I’m right here …” I took a quick glance around and gave her a quizzical look. “Wherever ‘here’ is.”

“C-Canterlot,” Twilight said shakily.

Um…what?

I let go of her and let my arm rest by my side.

“Why are we in Canterlot?”

“It’s the closest hospital from the castle…at least, since the one in Ponyville was destroyed when Tirek escaped.” I gave her an aghast look before she hurriedly added, “I-It was evacuated beforehand, Hunter, don’t worry.”

I let out a relieved sigh. The last thing my heart needed to hear was that sometime, somewhere, in this excessively stable horse-filled land, a hospital had exploded with the patients still inside.

My brows furrowed as another thought crossed my mind.

“…Sparklez?” I deadpanned.

“Yes?”

“How did I get here?”

“Um…” Twilight scratched the back of her head with her free hoof and contorted her face as if she was expecting an emotional explosion from me. “We teleported?”

“Sparklez!”

“I-I was careful!” she said defensively. “I had it all figured out. Teleporting the entire way to Canterlot with you would have been far too dangerous. The last thing you needed was an overload of magic. So, as you were going through the signs of w-withdrawal, the s-screaming and…anyway, I teleported us five miles to Canterlot, waited for the signs of withdrawal to start up again, teleported us four and a half miles, and so on.”

“You let me go through this?”

“I don’t mean you were screaming or anything on the way here! You would just stir in your sleep. I would never wait for the…the b-bad signs to start up.”

I kept my eyes on her for a moment before looking up at the ceiling.

Well, I appreciate what she did nevertheless. I didn’t want to be in that house any longer than I had to be. I don’t really think getting out of their as soon as possible was worth this, but at least I’m not getting screamed at right now.

Though I’m not too keen on having another one of those headaches any time soon, or those…hallucinations, I guess. Do those count as hallucinations? They felt so real….oh, hey.

“What was that thing you shoved in my mouth?”

“It’s a magical supplement.” Twilight answered. “The very center of the pill is comprised of condensed magic. The doctors prescribed it. I’m supposed to give you a slightly lower dose each time, to ween you off of the withdrawal.”

“What, are you worried I’m going to develop a magic dependency?” I asked with a half-smile, amused at the notion. I don’t know how I could have possibly thought anything at that time was funny, but the notion of getting addicted to magic just seemed a bit ridiculous.

“You aren’t?!” Twilight asked incredulously. That certainly wiped the smile off my face.

“What, that can happen?”

“Non-magical creatures are extremely susceptible to magic addiction, Hunter!” Twilight snapped. Her expression went from concern to curiosity extremely quickly. “Technically we haven’t proven that you react to magic the same way other non-magical creatures do, I’m not positive of it in your ca-” She interrupted herself, shaking her head and changing her tone. “You know what, I think it’s just safe to assume that the same rules apply to you.”

“Alright, fair enough.”

We were both quiet for a few moments. I eventually sat up in bed, groaning as I did so. I don’t know how long I was out, and I didn’t bother asking her, but I ached like I hadn’t moved from that bed in days.

Twilight lifted her hoof away from my hand with a startled expression.

“H-Hunter, what-“

I cut her off by grasping her retreating hoof, eliciting a surprised squeak. Cute.

“Sparklez, how long do I have to stay here to recover?”

“Well…”  Twilight cast her eyes down thoughtfully before she brought them back up to my own. “You could leave at any time, really. When I took you to the hospital, you were monitored overnight, and then moved here once I filled out the prescription for the pills, and-“

“Wait, we’re not in a hospital right now?”

“No, we’re in Canterlot Castle.”

“And why’s that?”

“The train back to Ponyville doesn’t have any medical staff on board in case of an emergency, and I didn’t have enough energy in me to teleport hop all the way back to Ponyville. Besides, even if I did, I didn’t want to risk your safety.”

I gave Twilight a soft smile, my appreciation for her concern for my wellbeing evident on my face. These days it seems like I have seldom few things to smile about. I really want to change that. Twilight blushed lightly at my silent praise before continuing.

“I spoke to Princess Celestia, and she allowed you to stay in this room for as long as you needed to. Which I guess isn’t any longer, now that you’re awake.”

“Do you think I need medical personnel around me anymore in case of emergency?”

“Apparently not. If you still needed a doctor, you’d still be in the hospital. You should be fine from now on, so long as you take the pills.” She looked down to her hoof, probably beginning to silently question why I was still holding it, or why I had taken it in the first place. That’s just speculation, but I like to think that I can read people.

Hey, just because I like to think that doesn’t mean it is true. But it’s nice to think that it’s true anyways.

“And are you free today?”

“…Excuse me?”

I nearly laughed out loud at the look she gave me, barely holding it back.

“Because I’m free, and want to do something nice and fun for a change.”

“…Sorry, I still have no idea wh-“

“Sparklez, let me level with you here: my life has sorta sucked as of late. I just had that whole deal with Summer, something I so don’t want to even consider thinking about right now, and then there’s this horrible magic-induced headache thing that I’m not willing to linger on, or even discuss to the point at which I actually understand it. Like, is magic something physical here? Is it like an over the counter drug? I don’t know much of anything about withdrawal, let alone how ponies understand it, so-“

“Hunter.”

“Right, not lingering on it, sorry. Look, the point is that there are some…things that have been weighing heavily on my mind lately, and I need a break. I just need a day or two to collect myself, some time to enjoy myself.”

“So what are you asking me?”

“I asked you if you were free today.”

“I…why?”

“Sparklez, just tell me.”

Twilight put her free hoof to her chin, looked up, and curled her lips, thinking. I really didn’t get the whole ‘princess of friendship’ business, but I still doubted that she couldn’t take a single day off. And, apparently, I was right.

“I’ve done all the paperwork that’s required of me up to the winter after next…and if I look statistically at the recent mishaps in Ponyville, I shouldn’t have to deal with a monster attack on Ponyville for about a week, so…yes, I’m free. Why do you ask?”

“Could you stay in Canterlot for a while? With me, I mean. You lived here when you were a kid, right? We could walk around town, you could show me the sights, and we’d have a great time. I’m in desperate need of a great time Sparklez, and given what I’ve put you through lately, you could use one too.”

“Well…that sounds nice and all, Hunter, but you have a job.”

“What, magic withdrawal hasn’t put me on sick leave? Didn’t you tell anypony about this?”

“I sent a letter to Pinkie while you were in the hospital.”

I let go of her hoof and spread my arms in the air, grinning widely.

“Then we’re all good! We stay in Canterlot for a couple days while  I ‘recover’, we can hang out, see the sights, ride a dragon, break some stuff, hang from chandeliers, run with scissors, the works!”

Twilight started laughing about halfway through my sentence as it became disjointed and ridiculous. I rolled my eyes at her and ruffled her mane.

“Whatever, the point is that we can have some time off. You cool with this? Can we do this? Because I’m pumped. Are you pumped? Be pumped with me. I would very much enjoy it if you shared my pumped-ness.”

Twilight smiled back at me, her saddened demeanor finally diminished.

“You’re acting awfully lot like someone who hasn’t just had a terrible magic induced migraine,” she responded. “Did you notice?”

“Hey, I’m willing to completely forget about this. Except when I need to take the pills. I would have to remember it for that. But besides that, I really, really just want to move past that, okay?”

Twilight frowned at that. I’m not sure why. What I said had seemed positive enough to me, even looking back on it.

Was it really that bad to try to put something traumatic behind you as soon as possible? I don’t want to think about how I saw my sister’s bloody corpse clear as day in front of me for a few split seconds. I don’t want to think about how real it was despite how unreal it was. I don’t want to think about how Pinkie’s crying eyes remind me of when Jenny fell down the stairs, and how she was crying when I ran up to her, and the tearful smile she gave me as I patched up her knee, and….and. I just don’t want to think about it. She’s dead. It’s over. Period.

I don’t want my thoughts to linger on Summer, or anything she had said. She no doubt just hates me for being a human and doesn’t want me to be near her, or her daughter. Fine. I’ll talk to Scootaloo about it when I get back, and we’ll sort it all out, somehow. We will. I know we will.

So yeah, I want to take some time to have fun. I want to laugh, and I want to smile. I want to weep with joy in complete abandon. Well, maybe not that last one, but you get the point. I want to live.

“Okay, Hunter,” Twilight accepted. “We can spend a few days in Canterlot.”

I wanted to be happy. I wanted to smile.

And so I was, and so I did.

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