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Apart from a few brief moments of disturbed sleep, when I was able to be woken, from hospital staff checking in on my roommate and myself, I seemed to have woken somewhere around mid-afternoon the next day. The first thing I can say I noticed was a rather unexpected splitting headache.

With a groan, I stretched myself some and found my strength was, to my surprise, almost back to normal, though I did feel like I'd gone without food for a couple days. Before checking my eyesight, I went through various muscles and joints, loosening up after a few days of next to no strength to move at all. Giving my eyes a rub, I tried cracking them open. I was thankful to find I could see again as I looked at the bedsheet covering me, though I was sensitive to the brightness like stepping outside into the midday sun.

The same regular visitor that had asked what I could remember spoke up, "I see you have at last awoken. Your eyes are now clear, I presume?"

Turning towards my visitor, my mouth froze before I could speak. I instead managed a startled gasp as I experienced a rather unexpected sight and reflex. Springing backwards away from my visitor in shocked surprise and finding myself falling right off the hospital bed.

It would have been a most unpleasant meeting between the floor and my head but I inexplicably found myself stop mid-air before moving back to the bed with a soft landing. What thoughts I'd had before about being loopy were now questions of severe hallucinations and going crazy.

My visitor wasn't human.

Not only that, but it was a pony. And as if that wasn't enough already, it wasn't a random pony but bloody hells, it was Princess Celestia herself!

Her long and flowing mane and tail looked just as impressive as I would have expected. The colors were clear in their definition, though they blurred from one to the next instead of sharp lines from one soft pastel ribbon to the next. It was so much like a living aurora borealis that carried on in it's weaving and wafting on an unfelt breeze. There were more delicate details and engraving across her crown and other adornments than I'd ever known. Her entire being exuded more elegance and grace as a whole than any living being I'd ever seen. I could only stare dumbfounded as I tried to process the sight before me, only brought out of my stupor when she spoke again.

"You needn't worry, strange and unknown as you are. You are safe and well cared for here. Allow me to give a proper introduction, now that you are all but fully recovered. I am...," she paused with a look of confusion when I held up a hand.

"Princess Celestia, literal bringer of the sun. Your sister, Princess Luna controls the moon and the two of you rule Equestria. Your niece, Princess Cadence, rules the Crystal Empire and Princess...Twilight... Wait a second..."

Celestia took a turn at looking shocked as I now turned to my hospital roommate. My disbelief only growing when I saw just who was slumbering in the other bed. None other than Princess Twilight Sparkle lay on her back, her horn and wings visible despite the sheet laying over her as her forehooves rested over her barrel.

In utter disbelief, I laid back down and rubbed my eyes again, mumbling to myself about hallucinations or weird dreams from eating Thai food before bed or something. Celestia seemed to hear my confusion.

"I'm afraid that you are not hallucinating, nor are you dreaming. You will have to wait until you are released from the hospital before my sister or I will discuss what we have gathered so far about how you got here," she said in a quiet tone, pausing a moment before continuing, "Perhaps then you can also tell us how you know of Equestria at all, let alone names and positions and whatever else you know already."

Uneasy with the way things were going, I opened my eyes to gaze at her, "We are gonna have a ton of things to talk about, aren't we?"

Celestia gave a graceful nod, unease was present on her features in turn.

After a pause, Celestia made a polite inquiry, "You seem rather calm, considering your initial reaction to the present situation. Might I ask why that is, considering you are not even in your own world right now?"

Giving her a nod, I attempted to give her a straightforward answer to such a deceptively complex question, "While I am extremely confused and worried I'm going nuts right now, I tend to be pretty calm in crazy situations. Partly due to my regular meditation efforts. As you just found out, I knew who you were and about Equestria already. What else I know says you are no danger to me and might even try to help me if you thought it appropriate. Just...trying to process everything right now and a panic isn't going to help anything, if it didn't just make it more difficult to begin with. And that's before taking into account my going in and out of consciousness for a few days. I had a little time to at least take in the fact I'm in the hospital for something serious."

Princess Celestia nodded, "That is fair enough. As you seem friendly so far, I will also let you know that once my former faithful student awakens, the doctor should be able to discharge you both. We can begin discussing the present situation after both of you can move to a more private location."

"That's fine with me, your highness. And for lack of knowing who did what, I thank you for whatever assistance you have provided since my sudden arrival and subsequent...," I waved a hand around for a moment at my current state, "Um...medical needs."

"You are most welcome. It was what was necessary, although when we talk later I will go into further detail about what happened while you were unconscious. I am glad you seem well-mannered," the Princess gave me a small smile with an incline of her head.

Before anything else could be said, Princess Twilight began to stir with a groan in a fashion similar to my own awakening just minutes earlier. She gave a quiet whimper and I guessed she felt the same as I had.

Going off my gut feeling, I asked, "Let me guess...migraine?"

"...ugh. I feel like a hangover, so yes. Who are you though? And why am I in a hospital?" Twilight said after a long pause. She was holding a foreleg over her eyes, unaware of those in the room.

"Aside from the migraine, how are you feeling, my dear Twilight?" Princess Celestia inquired.

After a moment, Twilight sprang into a sitting position as her eyes popped open to look at Princess Celestia, then noticed me a moment before letting out a small cry of pain and folded over with her hooves held to her head, groaning in misery.

I winced in sympathy, "You should keep it slow until the headache fades. I still have one from when I woke up too. You should have some water nearby. Might help."

Twilight gave a quiet grunt in acknowledgement. Moving slow and careful, she took a long drink of her water once her head calmed back down. My own headache was fading out at a steady rate, thinking perhaps it was just my imagination when it appeared to worsen a tiny bit when Twilight woke and sat up in such a hurry. With so many crazy occurrences already, I was a little uncertain what was related to what. For the most part, I was settling on approaching it all like it was just a really weird dream for the time being.

It was then I noticed the billowing golden aura around Princess Celestia's horn. Considering it was past morning and still not that close to evening, she wouldn't be dealing with the sun at all and it made me curious enough to ask, "Your highness, might I ask what you are working magic on? It's nowhere near sunrise or sunset as far as I can tell."

She stared at me in silence for a long moment, looking like she was caught off guard by the question. I would sear I saw mixed emotions on her face. Frustration, concern, joy, worry, relief...fear? After a pause, she spoke with a quiet sigh, "You will need to wait until after we have left the hospital. Much shall be explained then. You also have not introduced yourself yet. Might I have your name?"

Giving myself a mental kick for that little social flub, I cleared my throat and replied, "It has been a strange experience thus far, your highness. My apologies. My full name is Vojin Barloc Drayce. A bit unusual, I know. I had some creative parents. You are welcome to call me Vojin. It is an honor to meet you, Princess Celestia," I inclined my head in respect to her as I finished introducing myself.

"Very well, Vojin. It is good to meet you as well. I have heard many names over the course of my long life. Even some human ones, in fact. That is an interesting one. Does it have any particular significance, by chance?"

After a moment of thought, feeling a little embarrassed at the meaning of my name according to what my parents had said of it years ago, I replied as I scratched at the back of my neck through my long hair, "Well...it means something along the lines of 'peaceful warrior dragon of love and hope' when I asked my parents years ago. As I said, they were creative. They never answered why before they passed. Just told me that I would discover it for myself someday."

As I said the meaning of my name, the flash of emotion on Princess Celestia's face was momentary, yet it seemed to show a clear sign of surprised elation, however brief it was. I had no idea why my name or it's meaning would cause that response. Just one more question to ponder for a growing list.

"You are right, you did have rather creative parents. Now, while we wait for the doctor to arrive, how do you feel? Much better, headache aside I hope?" she inquired.

"Even the headache seems mostly muted now. Feels like I haven't got much fuel in my system and need a good meal, but otherwise I appear to be at least feeling somewhat normal again, your highness."

Princess Celestia turned her eyes to Twilight. As I looked over, she was sitting up again, eyes open now. Celestia had a note of genuine worry in her voice, "How are you doing now, Twilight?"

Twilight seemed to be much better off, giving a brief yawn, "I feel much better than the past few days, although I'm still feeling a bit tired. With how strong that flux was at first, I'm a little surprised how normal I'm feeling now, even though I woke up from that coma I think three days ago and couldn't see anything for the few minutes I managed to stay awake each time since. I had been expecting more of an effect. I hope I didn't worry you too much, Princess..." Twilight's ears folded back as she gave her mentor a somewhat ashamed look.

"I admit I was quite fearful for your safety when I got that note from Spike, asking I get to Ponyville with all haste and that you had said something about severe magical flux. After some time studying the event though, Luna and I were both greatly relieved it was not a more dangerous one. While we remain uncertain as to why both you and Vojin were quick to worsen if separated by more than twenty feet. All my sister and I, or the doctors of this hospital, have been able to gather is this flux event appears to have linked the two of you in some way. We do not know how or why currently. I do know there appears to be some sort of feedback between the two of you. Before you both woke up, you would grow better or worse in unison, in addition to my detecting magical energy drifting between the two of you. We will discuss this in more detail later when we get to your library," Princess Celestia said at a measured pace.

I could only listen to their conversation. I was confused already and now had still more to process. Why would Twilight and I have some sort of magical link between us? It was obvious enough that I wasn't anywhere near as capable in magic as she was. I didn't even know what a magic flux was in the first place. Nor could I see any reason she would want to cast a spell to do such a thing when we had never met. My train of thought paused as Twilight spoke again.

"Well Princess, all I can remember is being rather shocked to see a mythical human of all things falling out of the sky while I was on my way to visit Rainbow Dash for lunch at her house. It was immediately obvious he was asleep or otherwise incapacitated, let alone having no means to fly. I dove after him as I tried catching him with a simple levitation spell. I have no idea what happened but it didn't feel right at all as my magic started to waver. At first, I ignored it and just tried to get him safely down to the ground but by the time I set him down, I was dizzy and almost unable to fly. It seemed like the moment I got on the ground, the strength to even stand seemed to be draining out of me but the levitation spell wouldn't stop. For some reason, I couldn't cancel my magic and continued to weaken until I collapsed. I realized it was some kind of magical flux but didn't have time to evaluate anything. Rainbow Dash landed beside me seconds later asking what was wrong. She must have seen him falling or my collapsing on the ground. It was all I could do to tell her to have Spike send you an emergency message immediately. I could only tell her to tell you it was a severe magic flux and you needed to get to Ponyville as fast as you could. I barely heard her agree and take off before I passed out," Twilight seemed to shudder a bit at the memory. She had been about to say more after a pause but Princess Celestia held up a hoof.

"Please wait until we reach the library before discussing this further, Twilight. There are parts of this that are quite sensitive and need to remain known only to those involved," Celestia said in a soft tone. Twilight just nodded in response.

I didn't know what was meant by magical flux, but from the sound of things it must be some sort of dangerous occurrence. What kind of danger I could only guess at, so I would have to wait until we arrived at Twilight's home for answers.

It was quiet in the room for a minute, none of us having anything else to say in the moment. I noticed Princess Celestia's horn wasn't glowing anymore and still had no clue what she had been casting before. The silence was broken when the doctor, I assumed the one handling Twilight and myself, opened the door and strolled in. He gave a bow to Celestia before turning to us.

"I see you are both awake now. Aside from a bit of exhaustion, you both appear to be in good health. I expect you woke up with migraines but they should pass within the hour. Be sure to have a meal soon as well. We were unable to keep any IV or other medical tool connected to the two of you while you were comatose, though we observed no deterioration in your condition. It was a magical flux and unpredictable at the best of times but it seems to have kept both of you hydrated and nourished until the coma ended and we were able to hook you both up properly. Princess Celestia has already attended the necessary parts of discharging you both after informing us you would be healthy enough to leave upon waking, so we have no reason to delay you long. A nurse will be in shortly to tend to your IVs and monitors, as well as provide you with a small meal. After that, you're free to go," the unicorn doctor spoke in a mild voice, some amazement in his expression but otherwise appeared to view it as routine as he made his rounds. He gave another bow to Princess Celestia before heading out the door.

What happened to Twilight and myself was making me feel even more anxious. A different world, ponies, magic flux stuff, a coma for days and Equestria was supposed to be just fiction. The looming discussion was going to prove strange and revealing for all of us.