It was friday night at the Night Owl again, though the sun had just set. The place was relatively empty except for Vinyl and Twilight again, and they were dancing together to the remixed orchestral music. It wasn’t the same dance as before, though. This was more of a slow dance, them just leaning against each other and shifting around a bit to the beat. They had joined one another for a meal at least once a day that week and gone out for drinks twice. Vinyl was damn sure she wanted to stick with Twilight as long as she could.

Unfortunately, Twilight had to return to Ponyville tomorrow, which is why Vinyl closed up her club for the night so they could have it all to themselves. She could afford a hit to profit like that for this and she assured her workers would get a normal payday for it as well since their tip jars would be fairly empty at the end of the week for it.

“Ponyville isn’t that far away, I can even fly here and back in the middle of the night if I have to.” Twilight broke their silence. Talk like this had been going on for a while now.

“Girl I said don’t worry about it, hearth’s warming eve is around the corner and I always spend a week before it in Ponyville before hitting up Trottingham for hearth’s warming dinner. Octavia and I always do a Ponyville event, and now I have another friend to go see.” Vinyl replied, nuzzling into Twilight’s neck. Twilight grumbled. Things were silent for a while, but something was wrong. Vinyl didn’t feel so hot all of a sudden, but she tried to ignore it as she unwittingly leaned heavier into Twilight’s side. The Alicorn seemed to notice.

“Are you alright Vinyl? I can crash with you tonight if you’re so tired, though I admit I’m a little surprised you’re already sleepy at ten o’clock.” Twilight asked with a smile before looking down at the Mare leaning into her side. The smile fell to a frown of concern when she aw Vinyl. She still had a bit of a smirk on her face, but her eyes looked heavy and she seemed a little shaky on her legs. “Vinyl?” She asked, concern heavy in her voice.

“D-Don’t worry, and I’d like that…” Vinyl stuttered out, pushing off Twilight a bit to try and slide around. “I-I’m just f-fee-e-eling a little u-under the wea….” She started and couldn’t really finish. It seemed like she was leaning in to kiss the Alicorn, but had lost her footing and slumped to the ground. Her breathing was heavy she she barely looked conscious even. Twilight was immediately overcome with worry.

“Vinyl?! Vinyl what’s wrong?!” She started frantically and tried to help the Unicorn to her hooves. Vinyl was unresponsive and she couldn’t really stand on her own, so Twilight picked her up with her magic and gently laid her on her back. If something was wrong with Vinyl then she couldn’t risk a teleport, it might exacerbate whatever was happening and make it worse. So she flew.

It was a slow and grueling flight, especially since a minor snowstorm had just rolled in, ut Twilight was focusing on a small shield around herself and her charge so the wind and couldn’t wouldn’t touch them. She was suddenly very thankful that the Club was near the best hospital in the city, at least by air. The only thing keeping her from freaking out and bursting into tears at this point was her determination to get Vinyl to the hospital and the fact that she still felt the mare’s breathing against her back.

“Twilight SParkle? What’s the matter, did something happen?” The nurse at the front desk of the hospital asked. Twilight just nodded and carefully slipped Vinyl off of her back. She couldn’t help but let tears fall as she saw Vinyl, her expression was now pained and her breathing even more labored, she was slightly curled around herself as if the pain was in her heart or near there. The Nurse’s expression went from minor confusion to worry immediately as she paged a doctor.

“Tell me what happened.” The Nurse said with a serious tone as she led Twilight to a gurney to put the Unicorn on.

“I-I don’t know, she just suddenly got r-really tired and just passed out. It’s almost like she has the f-flu or something, but I checked for that and nothing. It just happened so quickly…” Twilight explained, fighting back the urge to sob. The Doctor met them at the gurney and nodded to them as they briskly walked down a few halls until he entered a room with a gurney and the Nurse stood in the doorway.

“The Doctor is going to do some tests and run a few scans, we’ll put you in one of the waiting rooms nearby. He’ll come right to you with the results.” The Nurse explained. Twilight wanted nothing more than to barge in there and demand she stay with Vinyl, but she knew better than that. She nodded and trudged over to the waiting room. She wasn’t idle, though. She concentrated to set up a temporary dragonfire network with Celestia and with each of her friends. The other elements wouldn’t be able to reply, but Celestia would be able to.

To her friends she apologized that she may be a day or so late due to something coming up, she didn’t want to say much about what happened until she knew what was happening. To Celestia, she explained the entire situation, as well apologizing for waking her up. The reply she was hoping for never came, though, but after about five minutes she discovered why. The Princess entered the small waiting room herself. Twilight was immediately clinging to her side, fighting back sobs. They sat like that in the middle of the room for a few minutes before Twilight finally calmed down.

“I..I just have this… sinking feeling that something terrible is going to happen. Our resonance… flickered, like it was changing… I don’t want to lose her, Celestia…” Twilight finally said. Celestia quirked an eyebrow at that.

“Well, I poked my head in and the good doctor assured me that whatever it was it wasn’t terminal in any way. I’ve never heard of a resonance as strong as yours changing, though. And this flicker, what did it feel like?” The Princess asked. Twilight let out a heavy sigh of relief at the news, but quickly thought on what she felt.

When they were in the air, she felt their resonance almost like their horns were touching. But when they were coming in for a landing it felt.. Different. It felt like Vinyl’s arcane signature was shifting, warping even. And it wasn’t subtle, she felt it as strongly as she felt the resonance itself, but she still felt them resonating. It was quieter, though, and that terrified her. Celestia donned a very serious expression.

“Twilight, you aren’t going to like what I’m about to tell you. The last time I heard of such a significant shift in an arcane signature that was resonating, it was when Luna succumbed to her Nightmare… Now, I highly doubt anything nearly like that will come of this, especially since you continued to resonate, but be prepared for anything.” Celestia explained. Twilight balked at her. The fact that there wasn’t going to be a DJ M00n or something did calm her slightly, but the fact that something bad could come it if caused it to flood back in. Celestia noticed this and continued.

“As far as the resonance going quieter, though, that’s actually a good sign.” She started. Twilight gave her a questioning look. “If a resonance becomes louder and more pronounced as time goes on, it will only be a matter of time before the signatures desynchronize and harmony is broken. The fact that your resonance is getting softer means the melody you two have between you has grown more coherent and strong. I don’t think you’ll be losing her any time soon.” She reassured the younger Alicorn. Twilight finally seemed to calm down at that though. She still had the fear of what was to come, but she could reassure herself that she was never going to lose Vinyl, and that was enough.

It was half an hour, in which the Princess has requested an entire pot of black coffee to sip as they waited, before the Doctor poked his head in.

“Ah, there you are. There is something you must see.” He said, motioning for the two to follow. They did so and Twilight felt her heart sink a little as there was an oxygen mask over Vinyl’s face. She was tucked into a hospital bed, though, and she seemed far less pained. They moved over to what looked like X-Rays and the Doctor pointed out what looked like two large masses of something on her spine, just below the shoulders.

“What does this look like to you?” He asked. Both of their looks darkened.

“Those… look like tumors… on the spine…” Twilight said, choking on the last couple words. The doctor quickly changed to a nearly identical X-ray, without the apparent tumors though.

“This is the X-Ray we took. The first image was an arcane scan that uses the X-Ray as a template. Those ‘tumors’ aren’t corporeal. They don’t show up on the X-Rays or anything, and they definitely aren’t cancerous. Frankly we can’t make heads or tails of it.” The Doctor continued. Their worry vanished into confusion, though after a moment of looking Celestia’s eyes widened and she practically gaped at Vinyl.

“Princess?” Twilight asked, noticing this. She looked back to Twilight, her expression almost incredulous before she shook it off to a warm smile.

“She’ll be fine, that much I can be sure of. Make sure she drinks a LOT of mana water, her fatigue and dangerous levels of exhaustion are due to her magic reserves being drained. She’ll be fine to return home, though I must implore you to keep her close for the time being Twilight. She’ll need you.” Celestia explained as she turned towards the door.

“Wait, what? Princess what are you talking about?” Twilight asked. Celestia gave her a wink before leaving. Twilight was about to freak out but a voice kept her from doing it.

“God DAMN I feel like SHIT.” A particularly exhausted sounding unicorn groaned out. The Doctor and Twilight rushed over to the bed. She looked very confused about where she was and her present company. “Twi, I didn’t drink THAT much, you didn’t need to take me to the hospital.” She said weakly with an equally weak smile.

“I shall do as the Princess asked, we’ll get her a mana infusion by IV and I’ll bring her some mana water to drink.” The Doctor said. Twilight nodded in thanks and left the two alone. Vinyl seemed more confused about that.

“Soooo, let me guess. I didn’t have ANY alcohol and I suddenly blacked out for some reason?” The Unicorn asked. Twilight just leaned in and rested her head against Vinyl’s.

“I mean, you had enough to put me off balance, but you weren’t even feeling it of course. I still have no idea what exactly is happening, I’ll have to nag it out of Celestia later, but for now I’m just glad you’re alive. Arcane exhaustion on this level is incredibly dangerous.” The Alicorn said. Vinyl relished the contact and intentionally brushed her horn against Twilight’s. They both shivered. The resonance was VERY different this time. They both had the urge to kiss, which they proceeded to do without hesitation, but there was far more to it than that.

It was almost like the resonance had become perfect, the harmony of their signatures blending without any skips or hitches. The physical contact just felt right, and currently it felt like it just wasn’t enough. The kiss stopped as Vinyl weakly pushed Twilight away, they both let out heated breaths.

“Whoa there girly, let’s resume that when I’m not apparently recovering from arcane exhaustion and we have a bit of privacy. I do have SOME decency you know.” Vinyl said. Twilight just smirked and pecked her on the nose before straightening back out again. They shuddered again, the feeling of their resonance hadn’t gone away. Twilight became worried again when Vinyl started showing the signs she showed earlier and did a quick scanning spell.

Her eyes widened in horror as she realized the arcane ‘tumors’ were drawing in more energy again, and they were growing slightly larger.

“N-No, not again!” Twilight exclaimed and concentrated. It was difficult for one pony to directly share their magical reserves with another, their arcane signatures would clash and it sometimes even caused terrible things to happen. Usually, to circle cast for example, a mage would channel their energy into raw mana for the primary caster to collect and convert into their own with concentration, or they’d infuse it into something like candy or water for consumption. Since they shared an arcane resonance, however, it was almost trivial to open her reserves to the Unicorn.

Vinyl gasped in pain as the magic flooded into her and the tumors swelled and spread out, covering more of her spine and even spider webbing out to some of her ribs and other bones. Twilight immediately closed her connection and gently prodded Vinyl with a hoof, the mare had fallen unconscious in her exhaustion and pain apparently. The spreading stopped, though, and in her unconscious state the tumors kept draining her energy. She could feel Vinyl’s reserves, they were so low it scared her again, if it went any lower then it would start eating away at her life force and it could kill her slowly.

“Vinyl… Vinyl I’m sorry… I’m… I’m trying to help you!” Twilight said, trying to stop her tears and sobs from returning as she was trying to think of what to do. She tried covering the tumors in a barrier, they simply absorbed the magic. She tried opening her reserves to Vinyl again, but the sheer power caused the growths to spread even more and the pained signals from Vinyl made her stop. Finally she opened her reserves again, but this time she stifled the flow to be so insignificant she barely noticed it. Vinyl had a surprisingly large reserve, though. That this rate it would normally take a few minutes of this minute flow to fill her back to full, but for now it only barely overmatched what the tumors were taking. Slowly but surely, Vinyl’s energy returned to her. Before it was back up to healthy levels again, though, the door opened and she barely caught a tray of food and mana infused water from hitting the ground.

The Doctor from before had entered and noticed the chart next to her had changed to show the arcane tumors spreading at an alarming rate, though they were currently stopped. They now completely covered her spine, her ribs, most of her skeleton really.

“What in Celestia’s name happened?!” He asked, quickly rushing over to do more scans. He felt the tumors siphoning the magic, then, and mild understanding washed over him.

“When she woke up, they started draining her again. She was about to pass out so I started sharing my energy with her, and it just made it start growing so quickly… I finally figured out the flow to keep it healthy, though…” Twilight explained, almost in a whisper, as she levitated the tray of food onto the little sliding table on the bed and put the water up to Vinyl’s face. The Mare was starting to stir again.

“Ok, there’s some freaky shit going on… Please tell me you know what’s up with me, Twi?” The Unicorn barely rasped out. She greedily tore the glass of water from Twilight’s magical grasp, though that would normally be impossible. Twilight hadn’t even transfered it over to Vinyl’s control, it was almost like she hijacked her magic. She smiled, though, it wasn’t a hijacking of it. Their resonance was strong and so her signature immediately recognized it as its other half.

“Damn that hit the spot. I’m gonna need like twelve more glasses of that shit.” Vinyl said, her voice much stronger now.

“Doctor, how long does recovery from Arcane Exhaustion take?” Twilight asked. The doctor took a moment to respond, but he shook himself out of his confusion to answer.

“That depends on the pony. As soon as their reserves are at a healthy level again they’re usually good to go, though I’d like to keep her here for more tests…” He started, but tapered off as Twilight helped Vinyl with her food and finally help the mare to get out of the bed. She tested her legs a bit and tested her magic a few times.

“I dunno about you, but I think I’m pretty good now. I feel better than I have in a while to be honest.” The Mare in question said with a snarky grin.

“Don’t worry, Doctor… If Celestia said she should come home then I’m not going to ignore the advice. She knows something about this, so whatever it is it can’t be that bad. I’ll take good care of her.” Twilight said with a soft smile. Vinyl blinked at her, the Princess was here to check her out? The Doctor looked very conflicted. Technically he had authority over her as a medical professional since she wasn’t a princess anymore, but she did have a point. It was technically Celestia’s authority she wielded, and the only one that had more than that on this subject was her private physician. He was certainly not her.

“Very well, just don’t hesitate to bring her back, and document any changes and findings. If this happens to someone else I’d like to know how to treat it.” He finally resigned. Twilight gave him a respectful nod and motioned for Vinyl to lead the way out. She signed a few things at the front desk and they trotted out into the snow that had since fallen.

“So… why are our magic pools linked again?” Vinyl asked as they walked. Twilight’s smile fell. She slowly explained what was going on. Vinyl froze and just stared at Twilight a moment when she told her how far is spread. She then looked down at a forehoof.

“So… whatever the hell is happening to me… it’s spreading?” Vinyl asked. Twilight sighed and started walking again, Vinyl quickly following.

“Spread, the only thing it hasn’t hit yet are your hooves. Celestia seemed like she wasn’t concerned about it, though, which is the only reason I’m taking you home now instead of forcing that doctor to hook you up to every machine they have.” Twilight replied, her voice wavering slightly at the end. Vinyl responded by walking closer, close enough for the Alicorn to quickly throw a wing around her without their steps faltering.

“Fair. I suppose I’ll have to go with you to Ponyville tomorrow since we gotta stick close or I’ll start draining again. We’ll just have to stop by the club in the morning and let them all know, Stiff Drink can hold down the fort forever if he wanted to.” The Unicorn said after a moment of reveling in the warmth of the other mare. Twilight didn’t respond, instead she just held Vinyl a little closer as they reached the apartment building.

She led Vinyl to the bed to get some rest while she fished out a few bottles of water and juice from the fridge to infuse with some arcane energy for later. The process took a good ten minutes so she was a little disappointed to see Vinyl wide awake, staring at the doorway.

“What? Girl you know I’m not going to be able to sleep with all of this going on without you to calm my mind. I already got enough crazy shit going on in my head, I don’t need nightmares to add to it.” Vinyl said. Concern adorned Twilight’s face as she walked up.

“What kind of crazy shit? And if you’re having trouble with nightmares I can ask Luna to watch over your dreams for you.” The Alicorn asked. Vinyl snickered.

“I have an overactive imagination, and all the stress and confusion adds up. But I won’t NEED Luna to watch over my dreams if you get that fine flank over here. I’m the patient, and I request the finest cuddle buddy in Equestria.” The Unicorn retorted. Twilight snorted indignantly, but the blush betrayed her. Vinyl stuck her tongue out, which Twilight replied to with a roll of the eyes before crawling into the bed beside her.

“See? Right as rain.” The Unicorn said with a grin before quickly kissing Twilight as they wrapped themselves with each other. This was the first time they’d shared a bed since that first night ,and it was certainly the first time they’ve done it sober. Twilight had to agree though, she felt all of her fears and concerns and even most of her stress melt away. That last one was a major point, since when she gets going she gets incredibly high strung. Recent events hadn’t helped either, Celestia’s actions were the only thing that kept her from having a complete breakdown. Maybe even a meltdown.

“Stop, you’re thinking about stressful things again. I can feel it in your signature. Just relax, it’s easy. Just find a comfortable spot to nuzzle in…” Vinyl started, doing so as she said it. “... take in a big whiff of your scent, and let the soothing warm do its thing.” She continued. Twilight hummed softly before kissing the Unicorn on the head before finding a comfortable position to rest in. She took in a deep breath and found Vinyl’s unique scent pleasant and soothing. They both still felt their resonance, but now it was a soothing hum. Like the beat of a gently rolling song- like a remixed lullabye. They both let sleep take them quickly, lulled by the harmony between them.

Author's Notes:

I'm on a roll today, got this one out in one go. Hope you enjoy, my friends.