//------------------------------// // Quarantine Period, Part 2: Twilight Sciences the Tartarus out of Fluttershy // Story: The Two Deaths of Fluttershy // by Draco Dei //------------------------------// "Awww... and I was just about to try to make the rainbow progression with my flame...!" said Spike, glancing significantly at Rarity out of the corner of his eye. "And just what is stopping you?" asked Twilight. "The library is a lot more flammable than down here." replied the dragon, gesturing to the stone floor between them. Twilight rolled her eyes. "True, but what is tonight?" "Huh? What do you mean Twilight?" asked Spike, quirking a brow-ridge. Twilight just stared at her assistant. "Uh? Nightmare Night?" asked Spike uncertainly. "Exactly. So take your chemicals and go outside past the edge of the library's canopy, and blow your flames straight up. Hardly in theme, but I think you will draw a crowd anyway." "Oh! That works!" "Ok Twilight, right after I give the guest of honor her hat!" said Pinkie Pie from beside Fluttershy inside the force-bubble. Twilight sucked in a nervous breath as Pinkie plopped the cardboard cone atop Fluttershy's mane and used her mouth to place the elastic under her chin. It would have only taken one rapid turn of Fluttershy's head to place her own mouth at Pinkie's throat. Twilight was sure that Fluttershy wouldn't do anything of the sort... well, mostly sure, but the event was still unnerving. Some deep educated intuition activated in Twilight's mind and she acted on empirical knowledge of Pinkie's abilities. "Everypony! Look at me!" shouted Twilight, not knowing if it was necessary, but having to do something. She shut her eyes tight, and kicked up her hindlegs. "Err... nevermind." she said sheepishly a second later, and opened her eyes. She was glad to see Pinkie looking at her quizzically from behind Applejack. "Well, that was plumb odd. Mind explainin' yerself Twilight?" "Err... well Applejack, if I understood it entirely myself I would be glad to explain it. As it is, I am almost afraid some misfortune would befall me if I tried. I still intend to investigate the matter carefully and with an open mind sooner or later." "Sounds like some of that there science stuff, in which case Ah don't think Ah care to know. No offense, but mah brain still aches from the time you tried explainin' that different calculus stuff ta me." "Ummm... exactly! Anyway, complicated complicated science stuff! Time for everypony to leave so Fluttershy can eat her dinner. And its differential calculus." Soon it was just Twilight, Fluttershy, and Angel in the basement. Twilight had enlarged Angel Bunny's cage and was now passing a large sheet of plastic into the main part of the force-bubble. She unfolded it and spread it over over Fluttershy's luggage. "Close your eyes Fluttershy." said Twilight from the top of the stairs, as she twitched a fold of the plastic into a better location. "I'd prefer not to... if that is alright with you? It's scary." said Fluttershy glancing around. "Well, I think it would be even scarier if... actually I can work with that." Twilight floated the saddlebags off her back and over to the bubble, still keeping them above Fluttershy's eye level. Next she created yet another temporary airlock directly below the saddlebags. She then quickly floated a one-cup bag of blood from the hospital out of them, cycled it through the airlock, and laid it on top of the bump in the plastic sheeting formed by a suitcase. Fluttershy tensed as the bag entered her field of vision and Twilight quickly left, her saddlebags floating around to fall in behind her. Angel Bunny immediately started to examine his cage, looking for gaps large enough to try squeezing through. Twilight was three pages into the latest issue of "The Journal of Experimental Mind-Affecting Magic" (After all the stress of the evening she had picked something light) when she barely caught Fluttershy's faint yelling. Moving to the door to the basement she opened it a crack and called down. "What was that Fluttershy?" "Help, I can't stop..." the words trailed off into wet sounds. Twilight closed the door and hung her head, her thoughts running on an unhappy course that seemed inevitable to her. "She has to come to peace with this. For all I know she may have to keep doing this for centuries in order to remain animate, much less sane. Better she faces this alone, where nopony will see her losing control. At least she could stop drinking long enough to yell... that shows she is strong against the hunger." The unicorn trotted to her kitchen and poured herself exactly one half cup of water in a measuring cup. Glancing at the kitchen clock, she then turned away and drank her water at a moderate pace. Turning back to the clock she noted the time difference. "Allowing for my walking time each way she should be done by the time I get to the basement door again." she thought to herself. But when she entered the basement, she found Fluttershy still crouched over the blood-bag. She would have left again, but she noticed three things. The first was that Fluttershy's eyes were cast towards her beseechingly, certainly fearful, but without the look of self-loathing she would have expected. The second was that the blood-bag still seemed quite full. The third was so strange that even her trained scientific mind took a moment to recognize it. Fluttershy was running her tongue over the taut surface of the bag, licking every inch of it without retracting her tongue into her mouth. "Fluttershy, what is going on?" Fluttershy just shook her head side to side, making long swipes with her tongue across the plastic. "Hold on, I'm going to help you!" Floating a stepladder out of a closet and over the tables and free-standing equipment dotted about the lab, she placed it as near as she could to Fluttershy's head without putting it inside the bubble. "Angel, can you tell me anything you think would help?" The rabbit crossed his forelegs and looked askance at Twilight but relented after a moment and shook his head. Twilight climbed up and looked through the bubble. "Huh, she didn't even bite into it as far as I can tell... and her saliva looks very viscous. How can it be so thick?!" Twilight thought. "Fluttershy, this is important! At any time during this night, either before or after Luna cast her spell did you feel really really thirsty." Fluttershy shook her head again. "Do you feel hungry right now?" Vigorous side-to-side head-shaking. "Ok, Fluttershy, I know you managed to call out to me before, so I know you can talk if you have to. I need you to think back to when you first saw the bag you are licking. Think about what the very first thing to enter your head was. I need you to be very honest with me. Get it clear in your head in as few words as you can, then answer me." Fluttershy winced her eyes shut in concentration, then with an act of will raised her head. "Somepony hurt. Help them." she managed to rush out before returning to her bizarre behavior. "Huh... interesting. Well, I suppose that we can just go with the most basic of principles... like it says in the Colt Scout Hoofbook 'treat the symptoms'. Err... actually, close your eyes, and listen to the sound of my voice, only the sound of my voice." As hypnosis attempts went, it wasn't very good at all. Twilight had only ever used autohypnosis before. She had studied the overall subject of hypnosis in the course of learning autohypnosis. Had she taken a few seconds to recall what she had learned she could have done a much better job. As it was her actual plan worked perfectly. She formed a airlock-layering in front of Fluttershy, opened the inner layer, then grabbed Fluttershy in a firm but gentle telekinetic grip and yanked the bag away from her into the airlock. Removing the outer layer of glowing energy she let the bag fall free to the floor. "Whoa! I wasn't thinking things through there. Good thing it didn't break.", the unicorn thought to herself. She scooted the bag under the bubble with her telekinesis, then looked across the top of the ladder at Fluttershy again. "You can open your eyes now." "Oh, thank you Twilight! I don't know what came over me." "We will figure it out together... I actually have a hypothesis. Hmm... give me a second..." said Twilight, beginning to pace back and forth while muttering to herself "Now let us see... if Luna's magic wasn't actually purified then... but that would only increase the chance that they would get caught, no matter how clean they looked... so, once again, the evidence, even taken in isolation from other events would appear to strongly favor the idea that the effect is not intrensically destructive... technical lethal of course, but not actually destructive." Shaking her head as if ridding herself of a stinging fly the scholar addressed Fluttershy again, "Are you feeling better?" "Ummm... mostly... I... when I think about the bag of blood I want to get to it and lick it again." "Did licking it feel good in any way?" "No, it was scary!" "I know it was, but I am also wondering if it also felt good. Think very carefully." Fluttershy pondered a few seconds. "No, 100% scary. But now that you mention it..." she trailed off. "But what? Any little thing you can tell me could help me figure this out so it doesn't happen again." "It was scary because I started acting strange... but before that... it was scary like when a baby bird falls from its nest." "So it felt like you were falling?" "No. That's very scary, but it is the sort of scary that Rainbow Dash wants me to stop feeling, not the sort she wants me to keep feeling." "What a minute. Why would Rainbow Dash WANT you to be scared?" "She says that sometimes -for ponies who aren't her- since she is never scared, that fear can let you do awesome things when it matters the most. Like The Stare... except that is more about being angry than scared. So... it felt like when you were falling from that cliff in the Everfree Forest and I caught you. It was scary to see you falling. Same thing with baby birds." "I see." said Twilight, her face carefully blank. Inside however she was grinning and skipping around. "I need to go do some experiments, then get some of my spellbooks. Why don't you get started on your knitting?" "Okay." Twilight ducked under the bubble and started to lay down next to the bag of blood. "Oh no no no! I am NOT risking even one drop of her saliva getting on my belly!" She stepped back several paces. "Just a second Fluttershy." She examined the bottom of her forehooves carefully one at a time. Finding no traces of moisture, she levitated a bottle marked "Hydrogen Peroxide with Dispelling Effect", a white cloth out, and four disposable hoofboots out of a distant cabinet she wiped the liquid over each of her hooves in turn, only placing each back on the floor after the elastic was snuggly in place. She moved back under the bubble, getting as close to the slobber-covered bag of blood as she could without stepping in any of the droplets, or risking any part of her body other than her booted hooves touch the ground. Focusing her powers in ways she had learned so as to better observe Zecora working while chatting with her she examined the gooey saliva on the bag. It seemed to have the right sort of magical properties, but she couldn't be sure. As she emerged from under the bubble, Fluttershy said, "Please don't be gone too long... if that is alright. I get worried when I am left all alone and Angel Bunny is too worried about what is going on to be very comforting... it isn't his fault though, he just cares about me in a different sort of way. Please don't blame him! It is all my fault!" "I will be as quick as I can. Also, it is NOT your fault." Twilight galloped up the stairs and pulled several books off the shelves. Most were texts on illusions, but one was from the restricted section due to the graphic pictures and was entitled "Basic Trauma Triage and Patient Stabilization for Transport". She dithered between taking everything downstairs and keeping the scary book away from Fluttershy, sitting down at her desk, then getting up again, then sitting. "Gah! I can't decide!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, as she began to pace. About a minute later a long-suffering Spike opened the front door of the library. "What is it now Twilight?" Twilight, motioned him in, closed the door, and quickly and quietly explained her plans. Spike sighed and got some large-size paper and glue out of the desk. "Just make a dust-jacket for the book. I'll go tell Fluttershy everything is OK, and then I am going back out before I lose my fans." "What would I do without my number one assistant?" "Thanks." Some paper-folding, glue, and a quick-dry spell (useful when repairing worn books, or when the Cutie-Mark Crusaders took "How to Hang-Glide" with them in the glider so they could try to follow the directions step by step) later, Twilight returned to the basement. Fluttershy was holding one knitting needle against the dirt between her forehooves, and the other in her mouth. The scarf was a fairly plain alteration of thick white bands with thin blue ones, but it looked serviceable. "Ok, I am going to conjure some illusions to help you roleplay some stuff for me. I may also have to tweak your mind, but nothing big I promise! Just basic sensations. Is that okay with you?" "Umm... sure.... just don't make me go crazy like I did before.", said Fluttershy, a pleading look entering her eyes. "I... can't promise, but if it happens I can make it go away very quickly I think." "I'd rather not." "Please Fluttershy? I am trying to help you. Think of it like an allergy test. We have to give you a teeny-tiny amount of the thing that you might be allergic to to test you." "Well... Okay. I want to get better." said Fluttershy forcing a tiny smile. "Great... now then... lets start simple." Twilight piled up Fluttershy's luggage on one side of the bubble. "I'm going to turn all of this invisible. It will still be there, so try not to trip over it, OK?" "Ok." "Now, I am going to conjure some images of ponies. Just do what comes naturally... don't think, just act. If that is too scary, then just say what you would do. Okay?" "Okay, but do I really have to look at scary ponies?" said Fluttershy shuffling back half a hoof-length. "None of the ponies will be dangerous-looking." explained Twilight picking her words carefully. "So... why are you saying it would be too scary for me to do something?" "Never mind that, we can't afford for me to bias the test results any more than I already have." Twilight grabbed a blank lab book, quill, and ink-pot. "Wow, it took me this long to remember to take notes for posterity... I guess I am making progress learning how to be a friend, but I can't let it get in the way of proper procedure. Have to do both." she thought to herself. An image of Snails standing on top of a crate appeared in place of the luggage, 'He' was facing away from Fluttershy, and was idly staring up at a point in space. It wasn't a very good illusion artistically (for instance one of his legs was slightly longer than the others), but Twilight had always been more of a technician than a performer. "Um... I can't think of what I would do. I mean I guess I could say hello, but I hate bothering ponies without a good reason, and even then it is pretty hard for me to talk to people who I am not good friends with." "That's fine. 'I wouldn't do anything in particular.' is a perfectly valid answer as long as it is the truth." "I'm so sorry! I swear to you I am not lying! I don't know what I am supposed to say!" Twilight rolled her eyes. "No, no, its OK! 'I wouldn't do anything.' is actually what I would have predicted your action to be. Anyway, next image." An image of a stallion facing off to one side appeared. "Oh, wow... I would make sure to stay out of his way, he smells like he is in a hurry to get home to his wife!" "Pheromonal response normal." said Twilight, noting the same thing down in her book. "How do you even know how to DO that?" "I... kinda Pinkie-promised not to talk about that... all I can tell you is that I had Celestia's full permission to study those spells. Sorry about using that, but the baseline version of the condition you have modifies the sex-drive." "Oh, okay!" Next up was Snails again, fast asleep, and stuck to a tree with bubblegum. Fluttershy reached her head out, opening her mouth. "Umm... Snails... or that is what I would say... 'Snails, wake up, and let me help you get free.'" "Erf... I don't know that I want to have him carry on a conversation with you... getting the lips to move right is always a headache... sometimes literally the next morning. Rarity actually has a bit of a talent for this I think, but I don't know if she would understand all the find points of what I need." "Oh, ok..." "Don't worry about it. Let us say that he tells you to go ahead." "Umm... and don't be scared of my teeth, my friends tell me that it isn't something to worry about." "Ok, and then?" asked Twilight, noting down "Subject appears to be adjusting better than expected psychologically to presence of fangs." Fluttershy reached out with her head, peeling her lips back, and began to very carefully nibble at the bubblegum, spitting out each tiny bite (which vanished as soon as they hit the illusion of the grass under the illusionary tree). Twilight considered trying to add the taste of the bubblegum, but decided against it. She watched Fluttershy work with interest for several minutes (including occasional apologies for being so slow), then added the illusion of a large pine cone falling out of the tree (despite the fact that it was a Bradford Pear tree whose trunk she was creating an illusion of). The pine cone fell on Snails, leaving a long scratch on his snout. Simultaneously she duplicated Celestia's modified version of the blood-transfusion spell that Mirror Pool had killed no less than three brave volunteers in trying to create, before word of Red Horn the Lesser's success reached him years later. She suspended the three droplets below the surface of the scratch, hidden inside the illusion. It was easier that trying to improvise an illusion for the smell of blood. "Oh my, Mister Snails, would you like me to get you a bandaid now, or should I keep working." "He says you should stay here and help him... and that he wishes he could do something to thank you for your help, but he already spent his allowance for the week." "Ummm... No? That's quite alright Snails? I think that is what I would say?" "Ok." Fluttershy returned to her careful work. "I am going to jump time forward a bit. Back off." Fluttershy backed up half a stride, and ran into the wall of the bubble. "Should I crouch down or turn sideways or something?" she said, already starting to turn. "No, right there is fine." Most of the bubblegum strands vanished, leaving only those around the colt's head. "Go on." Fluttershy started to mime freeing the head. Twilight added a spell of hunger, hoping it would work on an undead. It seemed so strange to cast the spell that her mother had cast on her to get her to eat her oats when she was sick for real, and not just as a demonstration. "Oh my... umm..." Twilight waited with anticipation from the top of the ladder, but Fluttershy simply kept working. When she had freed the colt, she turned to Twilight. "Ok, now I would go home and lock myself in my room and send Angel bunny to get you, because I wouldn't ever ever ever do what I want to do." "Well, I did say to follow your instincts... give in to temptation." "Ok, but only if we are clear that I wouldn't ever ever do this and you can't tell anyone." Twilight sighed. "You remember your modeling career?" "Yes?" "And you remember how unnecessary secrets drove me a little crazy?" "Yes?" "Well, this is one of THOSE situations. I am going to tell whoever needs to know... or rather I mostly WON'T, because mostly YOU are going to tell them." "Oh... well... at least I won't have to get up on a stage." "No, I can promise you, no stages." said Twilight, forcing a smile. "Ok, so..." "Go, on, its alright..." Fluttershy turned back to the image of the gangly colt. "Umm... Snails... I know this is really really weird, but if it is Okay with you... and really I would never ask this unless... well actually I would never ask this at all, but since you aren't real, and Twilight wants me to do whatever comes to mind... if it would make you feel better for helping you would it be ok if I were to nip you with my new teeth? I mean only if you really want to... which you probably don't, because that would be stupid, and really, you aren't dumb like a lot of ponies say. They are just meanies and you shouldn't listen to them... not that I am the best example, but take it from me, it is better to stand up for yourself... if you can. But don't go overboard, because that is even worse... I know because one time there was this guy named Iron Will and..." "Ok Fluttershy, he says to go ahead." said Twilight, strengthening the hunger-spell even more. "Really?" "Yes, go ahead, bite him." "Well... if you say I really really should..." "You really really should." What happened next surprised Twilight. The open mouth and sideways tilted head were as she would have predicted, but the lowering of Fluttershy's neck wasn't. "Is she so afraid of biting him that she is cowering? No, wait... she IS biting him! Just above the hoof!" Twilight rushed so hard conjuring a blood-proof barrier keyed to mesh itself to Fluttershy's lips, and starting up the teleportation spell again, (this time into her mouth again, rather than beneath the surface of the illusion) that the tree and the grass vanished, along with most of Snail's head. After a few seconds, she cancelled the hunger spell. "You feel full now, and are ready to stop drinking." "Okay... gosh that was scary... and weird." Fluttershy glanced back at the illusion of Snails, and saw the twin tracks of blood running down his leg. Her tongue darted out, pressing at (and since they had no substance, straight through) both puncture wounds in turn. Twilight nodded, returning the leg to its original, pristine look. "Give me a few minutes, I want to write what we have so far up." "Umm... Twilight, I think I figured out what nopony is saying... I'm a vampire, aren't I?" said Fluttershy in a despairing tone. "Kinda... sorta... not really!" said Twilight "Look, as best I can figure, when Luna was Nightmare Moon, she was considering MAYBE making some ponies into vampires. Then we turned her back to good. So she didn't think she could cast that spell any more. And because THINKING you are safe from a danger is sometimes more dangerous than not having heard that it is dangerous in the first place, she ended up accidentally casting the spell. It is really complicated, but she had to cast it on somepony once she had started. The point is that the Elements of Harmony DID turn her back to good, therefore you have to be a good vampire... except that isn't anything LIKE a vampire. 'Good Vampire' is a contradiction in terms. It is possible to be a good pony and be a vampire, but only because the two things are opposite from eachother. A pony who is trying to be good as a vampire has to get special spells cast on them, and stay in a special room at a mental hospital, and fight every moment of every day to keep from trying to do bad things. You aren't fighting. If you were, I think you would win, just like you beat that cockatrice and faced down Iron Will. But you aren't even having to fight. I can tell you scientifically that you are totally backwards from the most important parts of what a vampire is! That is why I spelled 'vampire' backwards... 'eripmav'. So please please please don't freak out. You are going to be out of this bubble in two days... we just have to be SURE, because if Celestia and I are wrong then it could be bad, but just the fact that you went for about the least harmful place to tap a reasonably sized blood-vessel on Snails and didn't even move a LITTLE towards Pinkie's neck when she was putting your party-hat on proves to me that you aren't dangerous." "I will try... just so you won't worry. But... what about the licking? That is bad, isn't it? I mean it was really really weird and scary and..." "Actually... well it is just a theory... I really shouldn't bias the results as I investigate it so I can tell you more surely in the end." "Well, if it is scary I guess I don't want to know.... I mean being some kind of monster is bad enough." A purple glow surrounded Fluttershy's head, dragging her forward by the neck to the inside surface of the bubble. A moment later Twilight conjured a tiny platform sticking out of the outside of the bubble in front of Fluttershy's forehooves. Stepping her own forehooves onto the platform, Twilight stared Fluttershy in the eyes, only the thickness of the bubble separating their noses. "Repeat after me: 'I am NOT a monster.'" "But... but..." "I'm not letting you go until you say it ten times." "But..." "No buts. Say it." Twilight was scared that Fluttershy would use The Stare on her, but managed to keep her facade by reminding herself that there was no precedent for Fluttershy using it on anything other than animals except when other ponies were directly threatened. "I... I..." "Go on... you can do it..." "Umm... I am not a monster. Or at least I will try not to be." "Err... I am not a monster." "I am not a monster." "I am not a monster." "I am not a monster." "I am not a monster." A pause. "That's five. Five more mare." "I am not a monster." "I am not a monster." "I am NOT a monster." "I WILL NOT be a monster." "Very good! Extra credit for that last one!", said Twilight a he released Fluttershy, stepping her hindhooves down and moving her forehooves back to the second rung from the top of the ladder. "Umm... Okay..." "Now, I think I will have some good news for you, but first... well, this next part might be a little scary... but it HAS to be if it is going to work." "Oh dear... I'm not sure how much more I can take..." "Don't worry, if I am right, this will only take two seconds." Fluttershy counted off two seconds in her head. "Oh... I guess it didn't work? Don't tell me what was supposed to happen, I don't want to be disappointed..." "Err... I haven't even started. It requires a bit of set-up. I need you to relax, I am going to have to do some pretty complicated magic to you. There SHOULD be a better way to do that part, but I don't want to delay while I go look it up." "I don't know if I can relax when I know something scary is coming." "No, I understand. It isn't that sort of relaxing I need you to do. I just need you to let the magic touch you and not resist it. Actually... there is another option." "A less scary option? What is it?" "Well, I don't know about less scary, but scary in a different way. Basically there is a very simple test I can run to help verify my theory. Unfortunately it is too dangerous until we can let you out of that bubble." "Oh, well... I think that being hurt or sick would be better than being so unsure... maybe? I'm not sure..." "That is the problem. It isn't dangerous for you it is dangerous for me, or for whomever else I use as my test-subject." "Oh... that's different." "Pretty different." "I could never ask anypony to risk something like that for me. I'm just not worth it." "It... would be worth the risk if it was just me. I might be able to figure out a way to make it work before the two days are up, but I'm not sure. Medical science was never my strongest suite." "And this risky test involves testing my reactions?" "Why, no, it doesn't particularly involve... hey! That's right! The behavioral portion of my tests is sufficiently complete that I can go ahead and tell you what I think this behavior is!" "Oh... that would be nice... I mean unless it is scary. Or if it doesn't happen then I would be disappointed. Which would be... disappointing." "Well, I could be wrong, but I think that your saliva has healing properties now, and you have an instinctive drive to use it to stop the bleeding if you see somepony bleeding a lot." "Oh... but wouldn't I be trying to gobble up the blood?" "I don't think so... and I think I can prove it!" said Twilight thrusting one hoof in the air triumphantly. Twilight went and got a magnifying glass, then mounted the ladder again, stepping forward onto the little platform once more. Next she teleported another few drops of blood out of her circulatory system but this time just inside the barrier, rather than particularly near Fluttershy. "I'm going to smear this on the inside of the force-field and you press your tongue against it. If your tongue isn't absorbing it directly that would mean that if you were doing the weird thing with your tongue to feed you should have been lapping at it, rather than just smearing your tongue around... unless the retraction of your tongue is only triggered by the taste of blood, but that seems highly unlikely." "Oh... well... Okay, but aren't you getting a bit low on blood? I would hate for you to pass out or something..." "This from the pony who once fainted when a leaf landed on her." Fluttershy hung her head and scuffed one forehoof in the dirt. "I'm sorry Fluttershy, that was rude of me. I tell you what, Princess Celestia's requisition order didn't say what we needed the blood for, only that it was a medical, not scientific need. Doctor Stable gave me the equipment to set up an IV, so I will just top myself off if I need to." "Oh... but... do you know how to do that?" "I have a book on basic emergency room procedures." "Oh... but are you sure you can do it just based on a book?" "Why wouldn't I be able to? It can't be that hard." "But don't doctors have to train for years and years to do that sort of thing?" "Well, yeah, but it can't be much harder than that time I tried to fuse deuterium with tritium with my telekinesis." "Deuterium? Tritium? What are those?" "Oh, you know how the sun is a bunch of hydrogen with a naturally occurring conjuration effect to add more hydrogen and a compression effect?", said Twilight, fighting to simplify things since she sensed that Fluttershy would only be emotionally exhausted by a more complete explanation. "Umm... I think so? I don't remember everything I learned in school, I'm not smart like you are." "Well, deuterium and tritium are types of hydrogen that are easier to get to fuse. I always thought that Celestia would like to see me following in her hoof-steps. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery you know." "But... Celestia says she didn't make the sun..." objected Fluttershy. She never would have spoken up to Twilight if she hadn't been a friend, but she knew it was a theologically important point. "No, but she IS the only pony who has ever managed to produce fusion outside the sun. I'm not strong enough yet. I couldn't quite do it. It wasn't like it was for a test or anything, it was just something I wanted to do in my spare time and Celestia was nice enough to bring me some stellar matter that I could process. Next time around I think I will use sea-water. It will be a lot harder to extract tritium and deuterium from it, but I think giving her a nice surprise will be worth it." "Umm... just be really careful. The sun is really really hot and I wouldn't want you to burn yourself." "Oh, don't worry, I have an armor-steel plate I can put on a stand and the laser emitters Celestia made for me are designed to cut off if anypony else gets within twenty pony-lengths of them." "Laser emitters?" "Oh? You haven't heard of those? Really fascinating, see, it turns out that if you can get a substance that you can provide energy to via magic or a mini-thunderhead or heat and which releases a photon of a specific wavelength when it interacts with a photon of that same wavelength then, err...", said Twilight catching herself, "I will explain later, right now I am topping myself off with blood from the hospital so you will feel safe about my teleporting more out of my system to run this last test on you." "Oh... well... I have watched the vets when I had to take one of my animals to them... so maybe I could watch you and tell you if you are doing something that doesn't look right? I mean I can't imagine you doing it wrong now that you have reminded me... I am a silly pony... but... it would make me feel better? Please?" "Certainly! Although really we should finish these tests first." said Twilight, carefully NOT mentioning the irony of this request in light of Fluttershy's earlier statement about being afraid of needles. "Uh... won't the blood go bad?" "Why would it do that? I tuned the spells on my refrigerator to the exact recommended temperature for storing blood." "Oh, I see... but... maybe better to get started before you get dizzy?" "Ok, but how about you eat what is in front of you so it doesn't go to waste?" "Well, if that is what you really want..." "If my blood is so precious that you don't want to take to much, then you should remember what Applejack says 'Waste not, want not.'" Fluttershy mustered her faint courage and surrounded the floating glob of blood with her mouth, swallowing quickly in an effort not to notice the pleasant taste of it too much. Twilight returned in a few minutes with another book, another bag of blood in a paper bag to keep Fluttershy from actually seeing it, a small mirror, and an IV line. She started to read, as Fluttershy continued to knit and try to hide her worrying. A few minutes later Fluttershy asked "Ummm.... do I have to sleep in a coffin?" "Oh, no, not at all!", said Twilight, not looking up from her book, "It is just that vampires need to sleep near to their native soil, and, especially in past centuries, many of them would go overboard and actually want to sleep below ground level surrounded by earth... that plus wanting a light-tight place to sleep in case someone tried to knock a hole in their house and run meant that they would buy something that they knew would keep worms out, and so on. A coffin was simply the most innocent object they could come up with." "Coffins are scary... I mean I can't help looking at them whenever I see them... and pulling one through town in a wagon... everypony would be looking at me... watching me..." "Heh, not really all that low-profile, but it is not like vampires were all geniuses. Just remember, you don't need to sleep in a coffin, so be happy about that. Actually, taking the dirt from your front lawn was probably overkill twice over... for one thing you may not need to sleep in your native soil because you are an eripmav, and for another dirt from anywhere in the greater Ponyville area would probably work just as well, but it never hurts to take a few easy precautions." "Well, I'm claustrophobic so..." Twilight tried to be subtle as she made the force-field slightly less visible. A few seconds later Twilight looked up from the medical procedures book and said "Well, it seems simple enough..." as she closed the book. Mounting the ladder again she attached the IV line to the clean bag of blood (still inside the paper bag). "Actually, I would prefer if you were standing on the floor when you do that... I mean... that makes sense...right?" "Are you sure? You can see better with me up close." "Well... it just seems safer for you to be on the ground when you do it... I mean what if you faint and fall off the ladder?" "Fluttershy, I've had to shut down chemistry experiments running in three reaction vessels at once with a piece of glass from the first one in my leg to keep a systematic deficiency in the reagents from causing the other two to explode. This will be a piece of cake." "Oh my..." said Fluttershy sympathetically. "You watching?" "Yes." Twilight drew out a shaving razor then poked at her own neck with her telekinesis to find the vein before raising the mirror and clearing a horizontal patch of fur. "What is that for?" "For the tape to hold the needle in place, in case I have to do this a lot." "Oh." Twilight probed herself again telekinetically, and slipped the needle in without fuss... at least from herself. Fluttershy, on the other hoof, drew in a sympathetic hiss of air. It was loud for an inhaling hiss, meaning it was practically deafening by 'Fluttershy' standards. "Well, I hope you don't have to do it a lot." said Fluttershy as Twilight applied the tape to hold the needle steady. "Oh, I am sure that when things settled down a bit we will be able use better procedures. You might even be able simplify matters in the long term with... err... on the other hoof, never mind that..." said Twilight thinking to herself "I don't think now is the time to bring up direct feeding, even if she really is safe to do that without draining somepony to death and transforming them, or worse yet somehow transform them without taking an amount of blood that would otherwise kill them." "So... um... you had another test you wanted to try?" "Yes. Pretty simple really, I teleport a few drops worth of blood in there, and watch as you press it up against the force-field with your tongue and hold very still. If it soaks into your tongue then it would indicate you might have been trying to feed when you were being affected by your condition earlier." "Sounds... embarrassing." "Well, maybe so, but this is a medical test. Think of it this way, it is way less embarrassing than going to the gynecologist, right?" Fluttershy blushed an intense blue. "Blue? Oh, wait... she's biologically dead. As the antithesis of life, her condition must have de-oxygenated her blood. She's cyanotic. I wonder if Rarity will want to make her new dresses to suit the slight change in coloration?" "Why can't you use the blood from the bag?" "Well, technically it is hazmat." said Twilight, gesturing towards a spot that Fluttershy couldn't see, but knew contained the bag... she repressed the urge to lick something as Twilight continued. "I mean THEORETICALLY it could turn anypony who touches it into a vampire, especially if they have a tiny cut on their lips or enthrall them to your will or something. Luckily the floors on this level are good stone and concrete, so I just need to get Spike in here to incinerate it in place." "Oh my..." "But first things first, let us get this test done with." Three Minutes Later: "Ok, you can pull your tongue in and swallow." said Twilight, backing down the ladder. "Ank oo... mah thung blus gegging really dry." said Fluttershy. "Would you like a glass of... actually, never mind, water would probably just make you ill. Have some more blood." said Twilight, starting up the transfusion spell again. "No, really, *gulp* that's OK. I just needed a moment. *swallow*" "Ok, well, I should go and get Spike. I mean unless you need anything." "No, I'm fine, really, go ahead and get that taken care of... I would hate to infect anypony."