Chapter Two

Twilight took her hoof off of Avery's back and stood to the side. The pain in her leg numbed, as a feeling of amazement washed over her. They stood on a small hill overlooking a town. Twilight could tell from one look that the buildings were rich in history. With architecture similar to the buildings found in Ponyville, the buildings had a unique look of aged knowledge washed over them. Twilight stood at the apex of the hill soaking in this majestic sight when the most incredible of the buildings finally caught her attention. In the center of the town stood a magnificent clock tower, the likes of which she had never seen before. The grey stone that made up the structure looked expertly crafted even from the distance that Twilight was observing it from. It was many moments before Twilight was able to fully process the grand sight before her and at last she turned to Avery.

"Avery this is beautiful!" Twilight said to him.

"Yeah I guess it really is. I rarely look at it from the outside in. It does have a certain touch doesn't it?"

"So this is where you live? It's absolutely amazing! What is the name of this town?" Twilight said with a trace of excitement as the smile on her face grew.

"No clue."

The smile on Twilight's face instantly deflated as she turned to glare at Avery. "WHAT?!"

Avery flinched backwards.

"How do you not know?! How CAN you not know the name of the town where you live?"

"Uhh, never really asked I guess? Settle down crazy mare, we can both learn together at the library."

Twilight's anger retreated at the mention of the library, however the pain in her leg made a full charge back into reality as a crippling pain found it's way back into the forefront of both of the ponies minds.

"That is, after a visit to the doctor of course," Avery said as Twilight let out a groan, "now lean on me again and let's get moving, we need to keep you off that leg."

They draw nearer and nearer to the town before finally being absorbed into the very light foot traffic of the town's paths. Twilight didn't dare blink, lest she miss any of the town's rustic beauty. The town's buildings reminded her of the stories she had read about villages of the past. Simple, easy to build, but magnificent in their efficiency. Though she did notice a lack of roads, the citizens seemed not to mind as they went about their business. Suddenly the pain in Twilight's leg magnified, as if making up for the pain she had been ignoring up to this point while observing the town so studiously. She tried to restrain her body from reacting to the pain, but she bowed her head and bit her lip to hold back from screaming. Her new friend caught this.

"Don't worry Twilight, we're here," Avery said with his best reassuring voice.

Twilight glanced up as they approach, her eyes resting on a simple one story building. The only one story building she had seen so far, Twilight noted as they walked through the door. The doctor's office looked simple enough. A few tables laid out with curtains available above them to cover the patient if necessary. All the tables in the office were empty Twilight observed, except one where the curtain was drawn, obscuring the cure to her curiosity as to what lay beyond.

Avery propped Twilight onto one of the tables and drew in a deep breath.
"HEYYYY LUX! YOU HERE? I'VE GOT AN INTERESTING ONE FOR YOU!" Avery shouted. The volume of the introduction nearly shocked Twilight off the table.

"Yeah right Avery, probably just another pretty mare with a scraped knee." This voice also surprised Twilight. Although it was said in a calm matter, it seemingly came from thin air. Suddenly, from behind the one drawn curtain in the room emerged the source of the voice. Out stepped a unicorn with a white body whose mane was faintly pink. Her eyes were a stunning crimson unlike anything Twilight had ever seen. Her cutie mark was a vibrant heart symbol. Twilight could swear that when she looked at it hard enough, she could see the heart beat. This focus was broken nearly immediately when observing the unicorn as a whole. Twilight had never seen such beauty in as long as she could remember. She would swear that her beauty rivals that of Princess Celestia, though her heart twanged at the idea of saying such thoughts out loud.

This new pony casually walked up to Twilight while she was in her observational trance and before Twilight knew it, they were face to face. Twilight gulped as the unicorn glanced over Twilight's body before finally resting her stare on Twilight's leg.

"Well well Avery, you finally brought me something interesting. This leg has had almost all its nerve endings completely fried. It's nothing short of a miracle that you're able to walk on this at all miss."

Avery brushed his shoulder nonchalantly, "Well you know Lux, I just love helping everypony I ca-"

His bragging is cut short by a yelp of pain that escaped Twilight's mouth as Lux grabbed her foreleg.

"Don't be such a wimp," Lux said to Twilight, as she stared up into Twilight's eyes.

Twilight tried to defend herself, but found that the words aren't exactly rolling off her tongue. Lux backed up from her new patient and spoke once again to the two of them.

"Let me guess, your magic isn't working, correct?"

"How did you know that!?"

"This wound seems to be caused by magic. Whenever a wound like this shows up on a unicorn, it throws their magic out of whack. I'm guessing that won't be functioning for a week or two."

At hearing this, Twilight grew worried. She hadn't been without her magic since she was just a filly.

"As for your leg, you definitely can't be walking around on this unsupported anymore. As much as I'm sure you enjoy leaning on Avery to go everywhere, let's get an alternative solution going. Avery, go get her that medical crutch I gave you, it's the only one not in use right now. You still have it in your house right?" this is answered by a nod from Avery, "and for goodness sake can you just fly there and be back quickly?"

"I don't think the wings will be necessary," Avery said as he stomped the ground with his hooves, "but I'm no slowpony on the ground either! Be back in a flash!" and just like that he bolted out the front door.

"Ugh that featherbrain. Ponies around here would kill for wings," Lux explained.

"Why's that?" Twilight inquired.

"Besides the every day convenience that wings surely bring, the nearest town is a five day walk from here thanks to all the hills. Getting supplies is a real pain in the neck, but for a pegasus the trip would be incredibly short. Maybe just a few hours with the wind at their backs." Lux said as she starts fidgeting through her drawers.

"I see," Twilight said, "so how long have you known Av-"

"Here it is!" Lux interjected as she held up a syringe.

Great. More strange liquids and ridiculous cures. That's the last thing I need. Twilight thought to herself.

Apparently this worry translated to her face, enough so that Lux could see Twilight's worry.

"Don't worry about this ol thing here," Lux said as she tapped the syringe with her hoof, "once this baby gets in your bloodstream it should numb the pain from your leg and begin to repair the extensive nerve damage you have in your leg."

Hearing this reassured Twilight and her worry disappeared, but for a brief moment.

"One thing though, until this is fully absorbed in your bloodstream, it's gonna cause quite a bit of pain. Nothing too extreme. But it won't be a stroll through the park. I've tested it on myself and made it through just fine," she said with a triumphant tone, "so it shouldn't be an issue."

Lux turned her head to face Twilight, so that the lavender pony was looking directly into the warm redness of her eyes, "So, you ready?"

Twilight began measuring the pros and cons. She truly had had enough of all these crazy cures. She always felt uncomfortable with the unknown, even though she was completely surrounded with it at the time. Couldn't get much worse.

"Uh, I gue-"

Before she realized what was happening, Lux had jabbed the needle into Twilight's leg. Surprisingly, there was no initial pain from the insertion of the needle. Must be because of the nerve damage, Twilight thought to herself. She watched as the liquid in the syringe drained into her leg. Once it was all drained she looked back up into Lux's eyes. Lux gave off a sense of waiting, time ticked bye for a few seconds before Twilight finally was able to get some words out of her mouth.

"Well that wasn't too bad," Twilight said as Lux stared on.

"It hasn't started."

As if on cue, a stinging pain began to grow in Twilight's leg. Manageable at first, but rapidly increasing in sharpness. Twilight began to feel more and more nervous as the pain grows. Before she knows it, she closed her eyes as the pain reached unbearable levels. She began to sweat and bite down on her lip to hold back from screaming. She felt her pulse slowing down. Twilight knew this isn't normal. When a pony undergoes stress and panic, her heart rate should be increasing. Twilight began to squirm and jerk slightly as her limbs reacted to the pain. The fact that Lux could survive this pain and put on such a cool face when telling Twilight about it made her consider promoting Lux to alicorn status. She got down off of the table and stood on all fours while beginning to look around to Lux for reassurance, but her vision grew blurry. She won't be able to stand much longer as her legs started to shiver violently. She can no longer pretend to be the strongest pony in Equestria or wherever she is now, the pain won't allow it. She opens her mouth to scream...

A scream never escaped her mouth. Instead she was met with something warm. Twilight felt her lips being separated by another pair of lips. Twilight's eyes jerked open to see Lux bringing her foreleg around the back of Twilight's neck, forcing their lips to mesh with each other further. Twilight's brain immediately started to attempt process what was happening, but to no avail. She felt her body get warmer all over and her pulse began to skyrocket. Her brain finally settled on the fact that yes, she was indeed having her first kiss with some strange doctor in some strange land. Twilight was unable to distinguish much apart from that however as she was experienced a strange feeling inside of her that was completely new and impossible to describe, all she knew is that it felt good. Not good, great.

What seemed like an eternity to Twilight was more in the realm of about 10 seconds as their lips finally parted and Lux stepped back before going back to checking the syringe and heading over to the sink. This calm, cool, and way too collected attitude towards what just happened finally broke Twilight.

"What was THAT?!" She exclaimed.

Lux responded with a simple, "Hmm?"

"You know! That! What just happened! That kiss!"

"Oh right, that! Well I've learned that medicine can be pushed through the body faster with an accelerated heart rate. So, I accelerated yours," Lux said with a bright smile that caused a leap in Twilight's chest despite her best attempts to seem angry. "Are you not feeling better?" Lux said quizzingly.

Now that she mentioned it, Twilight noted that she did indeed feel scores better than she had just minutes ago. She is still sweating and her heart is still thundering in her chest, but her leg feels far better than before.

"Well, yeah I do actually," Twilight said with a smile creeping onto her face.

"Excellent! Now don't go trotting around town with that leg, it's still extremely fragile even if you can't feel how damaged it is. But with that crutch Avery should be back with, you'll be able to be self-mobile."

Twilight stood there for a couple minutes soaking in everything that just happened while Lux cleaned out the syringes and returned them to their proper drawers. Twilight heard Avery before she saw him.

Avery entered the room, out of breath, "Wooo! And in record time too! Who needs wings? Am I right?!"

"Yeah yeah, we are all impressed Avery," Lux said as she turned to face him, her face suddenly filled with rage, "WHAT ON EARTH DID YOU DO TO THAT?!"

Twilight turned around to see the source of her fury, the "crutch" looked now like nothing more than a straight stick with a curved stick on top of it.

"You're lucky I know how to set a broken leg Avery...BECAUSE I'M ABOUT TO BREAK YOURS!"

Avery yelped and stepped back, but Twilight got in-between the two of them.

"It's alright Lux, this will do for now. I think?" Twilight said calmly.

"For your sake, I hope so." She sighed, "Alright Avery, bring her to Ira later to see if she can fix it up or make you a new one or something. Well, if Ira is in a good mood that is. Anyway, your friend's leg here is fixed up, so my work is done."

"And such great work as always Lux! How are you feeling?" Avery said towards Twilight.

"Great!" said Twilight. For more reasons than she cared to share with Avery.

"Fantastic! Let's get heading out."

As they were heading towards the exit, Twilight turned to once again face Lux.

"By the way, the name is Twilight Sparkle. It was... really nice to meet you."

Lux smirked, "It was a real pleasure meeting you as well Twilight Sparkle."

Twilight turns back to face Avery and start heading back into the town. She quickly adjusted to walking with the crutch and after a few strides, got up to a slow walking pace, which Avery kindly matches.

"Alright then Twilight, let's head over to Ira's workshop to see if we can get you something more reliable to walk on. I feel pretty bad about bringing back such a piece of junk."

"Woah woah woah! I don't think so." Twilight said in a commanding tone, "You promised me we'd be going to the library immediately after visiting the doctor. And I'd very much like to do that now."

"You can't be serious. You'd rather walk across town on that thing just to get to the library a few hours sooner?" Avery said with a joking tone.

Which was met by the very un-joking face of Twilight's.

"Sheesh, fine then. You really are obsessed with this knowledge stuff huh?"

"You have no idea. By the way, how did you get to meet Lux? She's really... nice"

"Oh me and her? We go wayyyyy back. We both got to this town around the same time. She's a pretty nice girl, most of the time. I'm one of the few people that can stick around her for long though without her just tossing me out of her life, though there have been some close calls. She's always willing to help the sick or injured, but being her friend is something many ponies around here avoid."

"Now why would those ponies do that? She seemed awfully fine to me."

"Mostly just being superstitious I guess. They say she has a heart that devises wicked plots."

Twilight rolled her eyes, "Can't imagine why they'd say that..."

Author's Note

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