"No." Twilight says frantically. "That's not right. You can't be dead, we're talking right now. Your heart is beating and you're breathing."

"Calm down luv, it's just a theory, but it would explain my sudden reliance on your magic to perform an action."

"But we extracted all the magic out of you, doesn't that mean you were at one point keeping yourself alive?"

"Did you extract all of the magic out of me? You said earlier that you kept me in the room with the stone until my body temperature was at a good spot. If I'm dead, than that means my body temperature shouldn't be in the nineties, it should be in the seventies. Did you and the doctors check to see if there was any magic left?"

"No, we couldn't. Checking for magic requires magic."

"Well, now that we know how to remove it and I am healthy enough, you may do a check on me."

She looks nervous, but shakes her head and begins the spell.

"Oh, sweet Celestia. Mark... you're... radiant."

I don't know whether to be concerned or take that as a compliment. Perhaps a little of both?

"Every inch of you has some form of magic attached to it. I can even see wisps detaching from me and traveling to you."

My interest piques. "Any way you can cast it on me?"

"If you don't think it's too risky."

"Well, everything we do is risky, but life's about taking risks. In this case quite literally."

She does the pony equivalent of a shrug and her horn glows once again. My eyes begin to sting and I rub them. When I open them back up...

Wow...

Everything around me now has a slight blue hue to it with the exception of Twilight. She is a vibrant, brilliant blue. It's a little taxing on my eyes to look at her. It's hard to make out any of her feathers, almost as if I'm looking at a two-dimensional blue silhouette. I lift my hand to look at it and nearly go blind. I have to squint my eyes to look at it for more than a second. It's extremely bright and the same color as twilight. The biggest difference I've noticed is that I really do radiate blue. I assume this is the collective magic I'm absorbing before it actually goes into me. I look into the air between me and Twilight and notice slight shimmers of blue traveling from her to me.

"Alright, let's fine tune this a bit. Is there an x-ray vision spell you can give me? Preferably one that only lets me see through skin and blood."

She tilts her head but I can't make out the expression on her face because I can't see it.

"I think I can do that."

Her horn glows again, but I'm not ready for it. The glow from the horn is like a flashbang. I hold my eyes shut hard and wait for the pain to dissipate.

"A little warning next time."

"Well you're the one that asked for it," she says with a slightly condescending tone.

The sauce is real.

I look over at Twilight again and take a couple mental notes on the locations of vital organs. I guess the anatomy isn't all that different from my world's horses. Everything on her is still a consistent tone. Even her horn and head have the same tone as the rest of her body. Interesting. I examine myself and what I see somewhat confirms my suspicions. I can see my heart and lungs. Both of these are bright, brighter than when I looked at my body originally. I'm certain that if I could see my thyroid gland it would be the same. All of my muscles are less bright. I once again do a squat and as I do so I see the muscles lose glow briefly and regain it after a few seconds of rest. It wasn't that difficult, most likely because of the magic that was recently used on me. The last thing I notice is what makes me freeze. My other organs (kidney, liver, stomach, etc.) are all even less bright than my muscles. I assume without food or waste to process and filter, they've all been deemed unnecessary. Thankfully they still have a faint glow, which tells me that they may still function, just inadequately.

"Alright Twilight, I've seen all I need to."

Twilight gives a nod and then, DAMNIT MY EYES! After I rub the white out of them I look around the room. Everything is back to the way it was.

"Well, this means that I'm right, at least in the sense that my body is weak without magic."

"Pony feathers! Does this mean you have to have magic to survive?"

I smirk. Oh the irony. "It would seem that way, but I'm hoping that I'll be able to wane myself off of it. If so, we're going to have to be vigilant about it. My stomach no doubt can't hold the same capacity it used to, and my body could end up rejecting a lot of things."

"Okay, so then, how do we deal with it?"

"I'm going to need the absolute nutritional basics. The most we should put in at the moment is glucose. Basic sugar to help me absorb other nutrition we'll do later on."

"Basic sugar... so... fruit?"

"Yep, but even that's too much for me at the moment. We'll have to do just juice, but we'll have to start out heavily diluting it with water, lest we risk my body or the magic seeing it as a foreign object and just passing it on as waste."

"You seem to know quite a lot about this kind of thing, is this common knowledge where you're from?"

"Well, I actually enjoyed my general ed. classes. My twelfth grade psychology teacher took a liking to calling me 'Sponge' cus I absorb information."

"Interesting. Well Mr. Sponge, what's the best fruit to make this juice with?"

I chuckle. "Sorry, wish I could tell you. I guess we'll just go with my favorite, apple-juice. It'll have to be fresh, no magic can be used to make it. You guys do have apples here, right?"

A huge grin appears on Twilight's face. It's very... confident. Almost... gloaty?

"We do indeed!"

"Do you know where to get them?"

"Oh... I know a gal. Stay put, it shouldn't take me too long."

With that, she walks out of the room. Alone again with my thoughts.

I could die any second of starvation, dehydration, or magic overload. But the only thing I'm concerned about is dying of boredom. There's nothing to do in here! I can't leave the room because I doubt a human roaming the halls would be very healthy for the psyche of any poor bastard that sees me. It's been eight hours since Twilight left. I would like to say that, but in reality it's probably only been an hour and a half. I'm pretty sure I could've cured cancer by now with the proper tools. I've counted the ceiling tiles nine time (one-hundred and twenty-four, for those curious). Suddenly I hear a giggling. I look up and see Twilight. My prayers have been answered.

"Hey Twilight, why are you upside down?"

She giggles once again. "I'm not the one upside down."

I look at myself and realize that I'm sprawled out on the recliner in the room with my head hanging over the front and my legs spread on either side of the back. I scramble to get myself upright and fail miserable. Now I'm on the ground with my face on the floor with my legs dangling over my head. This prompts another snicker from Twilight. I finally manage to get to my feet.

"Please rescue me from my prison of boredom!"

"Sorry there's not much for you to do, but we might be able to change that soon enough. Bring it in."

Now a cart appears from behind Twilight. The cart is being pushed by Doctor Red Cross. He brings it to the center of the room. On top of the cart is a large, clear (crystal?) pitcher of water. Next to it is a small vial of a yellow-orange liquid, a wooden spoon, and a glass cup.

"Honestly Doctor, I could have wheeled it in myself," Twilight states.

"Nonsense Princess Twilight. I understand you're perfectly capable, but it just didn't feel right to not help."

That word, princess, I've heard that a couple times before, but where?

As soon as Red Cross leaves the room, Twilight lets out an "Uuuugh" and rolls her eyes.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Hmm? Oh, sorry, I just didn't want his help, but he insisted."

"I don't see how that's a bad thing."

"It's... complicated."

"What isn't at this point? So whatchya got for me?"

"Only the best apple juice in all of equestria! Go ahead!"

I walk over to the cart and pick up the small vial and uncork it. Immediatley the scent of apples rushes into my nostrils like a flood. It's maddening. My body is starting to come to terms with how long it's gone without food. It takes every ounce of my will power to not chug the liquid. I look over at Twilight who once again has dawned a contemptuous complexion. I take the vial and pour a quarter of the juice into the pitcher of water. Next I take the wooden spoon and begin to stir the pitcher. Next I pour a glass. I look over at Twilight again, but this time she looks... shaken. Something's not right, but who cares? I bring the glass to my mouth and take a sip.

"Oh, sweet Mother Teresa on the hood of a Mercedes Benz, that's good."

The liquid is oh so sweet. I assume that if it was just another normal day, it wouldn't taste that great, but right now, it's the best thing in the world, the nectar of the gods. My body has been longing for water and didn't even know it until now. It takes all of my willpower once again to not just begin chugging the liquid. I take slow steady sips, careful not to gorge myself. I get about halfway through the glass when I remember something, Twilight. I look back over to her and she sobs. Her ears are down and she's sitting with her head low. What in the world?

"Twilight? What's wrong?"

She shys away even more and says quietly, "I really didn't appreciate that, Mark."

"What are you talking about?"

"The way you yelled at me."

"When did I-" suddenly I remember. Oh no. After I had opened the vial, Twilight began talking about how she obtained the juice, but at that time, all I cared about was the drink. I had turned to her when she started talking and yelled at her to be quiet in a less than flattering way. What the hell is wrong with me?

"Oh, no no no no, Twilight... No... I didn't mean that, I'm so sorry. Holy shit..."

Twilight sobs once again and wipes a tear from her eye. I feel like a monster. I set the glass down, walk over to her and kneel down. She shifts uncomfortably, but doesn't move.

"Hey, hey... look at me, luv." She looks up, but diverts her eyes from mine. I place my hand on her cheek and use my thumb to wipe away another tear. I feel so bad. "Listen, I didn't mean anything I said. That wasn't me. I went primal. I would never say anything to hurt you on purpose. I had no idea I would react to the water like that. My body just realized that it needed to survive and instinct took over. Can you please, PLEASE, forgive me?"

"I forgive you..."

Now she does something I didn't see coming. She lunges forward into me, embracing me in a kind of make-shift hug. Something I assume is a bit difficult without arms.

"You really scared me Mark. For a second I thought you were going to hurt me."

"I would never, got that?"

"Mmm-hmm."

"Good."

I pull out of the hug and look at Twilight again. She looks to have calmed down a lot.

"Something tells me we're going to need to have a talk about humans pretty soon. There's a lot we're going to have to learn about each other if I'm going to be here a while."

"Okay." She shakes her head vigorously.

"Now then," I stand up and move back to the cart, "I'm going to enjoy some more, why don't you tell me again about how you came across it."

"That's not necessary, we don't have to talk."

"No, I'm genuinely interested. Twilight, regardless of what you had said a second ago, I still probably would have snapped at you. It was a one time thing. I really do want to know, especially considering how confidently you seemed to think I would like it."

"Alright, well, it just so happens that I'm best friends with a mare whose family owns one of the largest apple farms in Equestria."

"Apple farm? Do they only grow apples?"

"Well, it's ninety percent of what they raise. They have orchards that span several acres. They produce other stock for the local town, but the only export they have are apples and apple related products. Apple pies, apple jam, apple fritters, they make it all."

"Sounds tiring. How many ponies do they have working the estate? Ten? Twenty?"

"There's four."

I almost drown drinking my water.

"WHAT?"

"Well, they hire ponies every now and then to take care of infestations or other things, but there's only four that harvest and package. All of them are family. Three siblings, two sisters and one brother, as well as their grandmother."

I shake my head. Maybe the farm's not that big. There no way four ponies could take care of a farm the size I'm thinking of, especially if their technology is at the level I think it is.

"Well, they have my regards. Even though it's watered down, this is some damn tasty juice. Maybe I'll get to meet them?"

"I think that could happen sooner than you think."

One glass seems to be all I can handle. My stomach already feels like it's about to burst. I frown, I don't want to stop. It tastes really good, but I could do a lot more damage if I don't. I set the glass back on the tray.

"Done already?"

"Yep, it's tasty, but I can only handle one I think."

"Well then, if you're feeling better, then I think it's time."

"Time for what?"

"I'm gonna get you out of this room for a little while."

"Wait, are you serious!?"

"Indeed! It's not going to be the most exciting thing in the world, but you'll atleast get to roam the halls."

"I could kiss you right now."

She blushes. "Well I-I-I doobashoo..."

Oh lord, she took that seriously.

"I'm just messin' with you, luv. Let's stop standing around and get going."

"R-Right! Let's get going!"

She exits the room quickly and I follow suit. Thank god I'm getting out of the room. Thanks to the extra bit of magic Twilight pumped into me, I'm walking pretty fine. I step out into the hallway for the first time and-

Sweet sassy molassey. I can't even.

Calling this a hallway is like calling a B-52 a paper airplane. The ceiling is easily over twenty feet tall. Along the wall are ceiling tall tinted windows, none of them with any discernable patterns, but that doesn't make it any less beautiful. The floor is marble, carved and waxed. In the center of the floor is a maroon-trimmed, red carpet with an illustrious pattern of gold that reflects the light. Several doors line the wall opposite the windows. The walls on the side with the doors is a shade of light purple. From the walls hang several tall banners of multiple colors.

"Twilight, where are we?" I ask.

"Remember how I told you that you were receiving the royal treatment? Well, right now we're in Canterlot Castle. Home to the highest power in all of Equestria."

"You mean to tell me, I've been residing in a castle this whole time?"

"Yes you have, now close your mouth before you catch flies. Let's get out of here."

"O-Ok..."

I begin following her again. We take several bends and corners, but it all looks the same.

"Wait, this isn't right," Twilight says suddenly.

"I'll say, I'm pretty sure we've passed this speck before."

"We have. These hallways have an enchantment on them that makes it so anyone unauthorized gets lost, constantly being redirected to different parts of the castle, but never the important parts. Eventually they get found by the castle gaurds and either escorted out or thrown into a dungeon. I don't think you've been recognized by the enchantment, if you even can be."

"So how do we get around then?"

"Well, there's probably a more permanent solution, which would involve reworking the enchantment entirely so that it can recognize your negative magic state. I'm gonna have to put a shield of my essence around you. It seems like everything I do to help you just brings you closer to death. Let's just hope you don't absorb it all before we can get to the courtroom."

"Courtroom?"

"It's where Celestia holds Day Court. There's nothing on the agenda except one thing today though, so she's only taking walk-in requests."

"What's the one thing?"

"You."

"Oh."

Author's Note

So, I'm not very confident in the whole "going primal" scene, so if I should remove it, let me know. It's not very vital to the story, it just felt right at the time I was writing it. Thanks again bros and broettes for reading. Drop a like if you haven't. It keeps me balanced with important vitamins and minerals.