Twilight’s eyes fluttered open, a blinding light above her burned her pupils and the mare gritted her teeth. Her head raged with a headache and for some unmistakable reason she felt unbelievably empty inside. Concentrating on the light above she tried to turn it off, but a splitting pain from her horn made her cry out in agony. She breathed deeply and pressed her head back into what felt like a pillow. Her right foreleg kicked the soft surface of the bed before her and rolled over to the right. Her skull felt like somepony was hammering a stake into it.
“Please, Princess, be careful,” Said a hushed voice. “Your horn has suffered a major injury, we can’t have you performing spells at this time.”
Twilight whined and rolled back over, she opened her eyes and standing over her was a silhouette of a stallion. “Who... who are you?” Her voice was strained and the raging migraine continued to pound at her relentlessly.
“It’s me, the Doctor. Doctor Whooves, remember? We ran into each other a few times around town.” Twilight blinked as she squinted her eyes, trying to make out more details of this stallion. However, before an image could be set in front of her, the stallion moved away and came back shortly after with a hot, wet towel. “I’m just going to set this here, it should help quell your head pains,” He said as he gently placed the towel below Twilight’s horn.
Twilight hissed and closed her eyes, the warm, damp towel immediately having its effects. “Wh-what happened? Why does it hurt?”
“Whatever happened up here––” Twilight cringed when she felt a tip of a wet towel dab itself against her face, pain flaring up at the touch, “––tore a large gash in your face along with temporarily severing your cerebral tether to your horn.”
Twilight reopened her eyes and she was met with a concerned face of a stallion gazing down at her. He had his left hoof hovering only a few inches above her face, wrapped around it was a bloodied white towel. “M-my ce-cerebral tether?” She stuttered out. “Th-that means my m-magic––”
“Is temporarily disabled.” The Doctor finished for her, his eyebrows raised and he looked down at her worried. “Princess Sparkle, I’m begging you to remain calm.”
Twilight’s breathing escalated and her eyes darted back and forth, she tried to sit up but Whooves placed his hoof to her chest and held her down. “Where am I?!” Twilight called out. “What happened?!” She went to fire up her horn and push him off, but was only met with excruciating pain. “GGggaaah!” Twilight cried out.
“Derpy!” Whooves shouted. “Derpy, I need your assistance!” He turned back to Twilight and knelt down, his leg pressed down on her in order to keep her steady. “Princess, please you need to remain calm. You’re safe down here, you have to believe me.”
Twilight felt tears brimming at the edges of her eyes, clenching her lids shut the alicorn gritted her teeth and breathed in deeply. The pain in her forehead screamed to the point she thought she was going to faint, when she opened her eyes briefly her vision was blurred and starry. Somewhere at the other end of the room she could hear somepony stumble in.
“I’m here, Mr. Whooves, what do you need?”
“Get me a bottle of cloves so I can numb the pain,” He ordered their mare.
“Yes, Sir!” the mare ran off into the other room.
“Don’t worry, Princess, we’ll have it settled in just a minute,” Whooves said as she lifted the rag back to her face and began to dab at the gash that tore down the middle.
Twilight's heart rammed against her chest and her breathing was more along the lines of a dog on the verge of a stroke. Her vision swirled and she felt the sudden urge to vomit, she whimpered and sobbed quietly, the pain unbearable to the point that she wished that somepony would just end it all.
“Derpy, where are you!?” Whooves shouted.
“I’m coming, sir!” The mare rushed into the room, a white bag in her teeth she drops it at the end of the bed. “I couldn’t find it exactly, so I just brought the whole bag.”
“Thank you dear, It doesn’t matter,” He said and pulled away from Twilight for an altogether too long moment. He opened the bag and fumbled around inside until her found what he was looking for. Letting off a short lived cheer, he pulled out a small bottle filled with a ground up herb. “This should do the trick!” He popped the cap off, “Now, Princess, this will sting very briefly...” Whooves whispered as he tipped the bottle a bit a sprinkled the herbs onto her open flesh.
Twilight’s back arched violently and she bit her lip and hissed. Blood spurting out from under teeth, she groaned and fell back onto the bed with small smile as a bit of the pain began to drift away. Her horn, however, still ached but as time began to pass on by it also started to make its trip out the door. Along with that her breathing and heart rate began to stabilize and Twilight found herself drifting out of consciousness as relaxation took hold of her.
Whooves ran a hoof over his brow. “Of all that is, Luna... she’s finally calming down.”
“Is she going to okay, Mr .Whooves?” Derpy asked standing the doorway.
“I believe so, Derpy... I believe so.”
