09 - The Breaking Point
I laid on the wet grass beside Twilight's castle to cool myself off from the side effects of Twilight’s experiment. Sighing, I looked to the cloudy sky. Where’s the rain when you need it?
With Twilight gone, I didn’t have much chance of getting my cutie mark. I thought about finding Scootaloo and Apple Bloom, so I could tell them that my plans got canceled and that we could go interview more ponies. They’d surely be against it, trying to think of their own alternative ideas, and I wouldn’t have to think at all.
I started to think of the ways I could improve on Spike’s worst song in the history of Equestria, but I put a stop to it because it interfered with my non-thinking.
Just when I was deciding on whether to put my brain into sleep or hibernation, an idea struck me out of the blue. I jumped on all four hooves and grinned. A flash of distant lightning drew a sinister shadow of me on the castle wall. I didn’t even need Twilight; I could break the barrier in my horn myself and earn the elusive cutie mark right there and then! A thunder's echoes roared around me.
It was settled. No barrier should be allowed to keep me from becoming a great and powerful magician. My eyes closed, head lowered, breaths deepened and slowed. I spread all four legs and pointed my horn forward. That's what I was supposed to do. I had to push something against something else.
I sighed when I noticed the tenseness in my muscles. That wasn’t the right way to do it. I shook and forced my body to relax. The pushing part had to be done in a different manner. Maybe I could force the energies forward the way I could push my mane forward. I shook my head left and right then up and down and all around. It didn’t work. Well, it worked for my mane, just not for my horn.
Perhaps if I pushed the flow from my entire body... I spun around in place, faster and faster. My tongue almost slipped out of my mouth. Even my lips retracted from my teeth a little. Warmth filled both cheeks, and my head became heavier. It was working. I could tell because the skin all over my face itched. The flow, or something, was apparently pushing forward. I was doing it!
When I spun faster, I lost my balance. I stepped forward to regain it, but that got me closer to the castle’s door. My horn graced the wood, and the pain hit me right after. I saw a flash before my eyes. What was that? A spark? I squealed in pain and fell to the ground.
The world spun, and I felt sick. If I’d eaten the sandwich that Spike had made, I’d surely be throwing it up right about that time. The pain made me queasy, but it was worth the struggle if it meant getting my magic back. I stroke the bony surface with both forehooves. The hornache thumped in waves.
I slowly stood up and spread all four legs. The world was still shaky. My eyes glanced at the scratch on the door before rolling around again. I could feel my horn more than any other part of my body. The base of it thumped at the beat of my heart. I figured those were the energy currents pushing against the conduit. Or its core? Or mana-pool? Or whatever it was they needed to push against!
My hoof slid along the scrape on the door as if marking a target. That was it! A way for me to break through the horn’s barrier. The path to my cutie mark.
There were already two big dents and a scratch on the wood. Twilight should buy herself a new door anyway. Everypony I was close to changed doors on a regular basis. It was necessary because the doors showed increasing wear and tear with my every visit. Another crack on the shoddy entrance shouldn't make a difference. “Work, you stupid horn! Work!” I lifted my head then plunged it down as hard as I could. A loud thump and a screech emanated from in front of me. I saw—twinkles. I was sure that time around! And it wasn't just one. At least three sparks flew before my eyes!
I squealed from the pain that followed. The ache was almost unbearable. I thumped all four hooves on the ground repeatedly, but it didn't help any. The pulsing irks remained. Perhaps the gateway to the magic in my horn was opening. I sure could feel it throbbing!
The power within me was so great that I would surely make everypony jelly. Even the awesome Rainbow Dash would envy me and my mighty horn! Producing a single spark would always be out of the Pegasus’s reach while I had already achieved so much more. And my amounting wasn’t over yet; far from it! Greater things still lay ahead, just waiting for me to reach out to them. My blind faith was so strong that it just had to be true.
I sang Shoten’s Get Your Pony On song to distract myself from the pain.
I’m breaking the barrier
Can’t pin me on the road
My eyes darted around. Just keeping myself from falling over became an achievement in its own right.
I was disoriented and dizzy. Usually, that would be a bad thing, but at that time, it distracted me from overthinking my plan. Persistency was the key to getting what I wanted. All it would take was hitting the door one more time, and the reward would surely come to me.
There had been many things in my lifetime that I had butted against. Even in the condition I was in, the lifelong experience of knocking stuff with my head would guide me in hitting the door one more time. The bumping skill I possessed could not be denied! “No pain, no gain!”
Determined, I raised myself on the hind legs. “This one is for the count!” My head rose high. It was obvious what I had to do. “Lots of pain, lots of gain!”
I’m breaking all limits
Now watch me explode
I closed my eyes and plunged down with all my weight.
CLANG!
A metallic ringing resonated in my head. The horn must have hit the lock on the door. I was still catching my balance even after both forehooves touched the ground. “Ngh!” I opened my eyes, and the light show almost blinded me. What I saw before me was incredible.
A fountain of sparks burst forth from my noggin. I broke the barrier!
The unbearable pain hit me. I let out a scream of agony as the cramping spread all over my body. The numbing hurt engulfed my head. I fell on the ground. My vision tunneled and darkened. All four legs twitched uncontrollably. I gasped for air then yelled some more. Salty tears flowed into my gaping mouth in a stream. The top of my head felt as if it was pressed against a hot stove. Yet, amidst all the suffering, I felt like smiling. I knew I had achieved something extraordinary! The barrier had resisted but was no match for my genius.
After hard training and painstaking effort, I had finally broken… The vision came back to me, and before me I saw it. “My horn!”
I rolled on my fetlocks and leaned over the white cone. It lay there. In front of me. Detached from me. In the grass. It had always been on my head. But at the time—I fearfully peered up and waved a hoof in the empty space before my forehead—It wasn’t there anymore! There was a mere stump where my horn had used to be. I swagged to my rump. The realization of what had just happened dawned on me. Both forelegs spread out as my head jerked up toward the sky. I howled with all my lungs, “Nooo!”
I got up on all four and gazed down through the tears. “No!” I yelled at my horn on the ground. I jumped around the bony cone, not taking my eyes off it for a second. “No! No! No!”
A voice came from a distance. “Sweetie Belle, Is that you?” A mare approached.
Help? I needed help; somepony to fix me. After picking up the horn with my mouth, I ran toward the familiar voice.
She stopped and looked at me “Was that you yelling, Sweetie Belle? Is something the matter?”
It was Nurse Redheart, the medical pony. She always knew how to help when somepony had an accident in school and we called for her. A spark of light in the darkest hour of my worst day. Of all the ponies I could meet, she was the one I could count on to make it all better.
When I approached her, she gasped and raised a hoof to her muzzle. “Your horn!”
I sat on my tushie in front of her, sobbing uncontrollably. Tears streamed down my cheeks. Right after I dropped the detached horn before her hooves, I looked up at her with my widespread eyes. “Help me!”
Leaning down, she observed my forehead. “Sweetie Belle, don't panic.” She slowly put a hoof on my shoulder. “It looks bad, but it’s not the end of the world.”
A sigh of relief took away some of my tension. I had been afraid that even she might not have been able to help me, but her words calmed me down a bit. “Wounds heal themselves. It’s just what they do, right?” The corners of my mouth rose a little. I looked up at her with a gaze of pure hope and the blindest of faith.
“Ponies who break their horns eventually learn to live without them.”
My jaw dropped as I gasped in despair and the most horrific of dreads.
“Before that, however, you’ll need to come with me to the clinic. We can’t just leave the inner tissue exposed like this. First, we’ll disinfect it with antiseptic. That may sting a little bit, but it won’t be too bad. After that, we’ll wrap up the stump for a week or two so that the soft tissue hardens...”
I uttered the words that kept repeating in my mind, “Live. Without. My horn...”
“It's as if you chip off a tooth.”
My ears peeked. “Apple Bloom chipped a tooth!” I looked up at her again with my last shred of hope. “She told me all about it.”
“It won't ever grow back, but in time you can move on and cherish your healthy teeth even more because of the experience.”
“But I’m not that horny!”
“Erm...” Nurse Redheart stuttered.
My forehooves thumped at the side of my detached appendage. “All I had was this one horn...” When the skin on my forehead wrinkled, I felt the sharp edges of my stump. Apple Bloom’s tooth had grown back! She had just needed to drink… a pink potion—Zecora! She could help me! “I need to go!”
She sighed. “You need to relieve yourself—now of all times?”
Her voice faded into the background while I focused my eyes and ears on the broken horn lying on the grass. “I can’t go on like this…”
“It’s against Twilight’s decency decree, but if you really must...” She looked around. “Try to pee quickly, though. It’s important that we don’t waste time. That stump needs to get disinfected as soon as possible. I’ll look away as you pee if you require privacy to do it. When you’re done, we have to hurry to the clinic. Time is of the essence when it comes to exposure to infections.” She slightly turned around but peeked back with one eye right after.
It was clear what I had to do. Redheart couldn’t help me, but Zecora surely could. My snout plunged down, snatching up the horn. I looked up at the pony who let me down, then focused on the Everfree Forest.
Redheart glanced at me. “I can carry the horn for you if you want to keep it as a memento.”
I jumped back and turned midair. The moment I hit the ground, I broke into a gallop.
Nurse Redheart called after me, “Sweetie Belle, stop! You can bury your horn after we take care of you.”
Not looking back, I pressed on as fast as my legs would carry me.
“If we don’t treat it, your stump could get infected!”
I've never run so far without rest before in my life. Heartbeats in my forehead, pain in my legs, it was all unimportant. I ignored the distractions and just kept running. My life as I knew it depended on it. The urgency carried me through the forest. It was almost as if my body moved on its own. I didn’t feel the strain, I wouldn’t care even if I did.
The howling in the distance made my hair stand up, but there was no time to be scared. I didn’t even bother looking at the dark shadows among the trees. Getting to Zecora was all that mattered, and her hut was already in my sight.
I threw myself against the door. It swung open with a loud bang.
Zecora jerked, dropping the big wooden spoon in the cauldron. She balanced on just one leg and lifted the remaining three legs in the air toward me.
I threw my horn on the floor before her and looked past the wall of hooves straight into her eyes. “Help me!” I wanted to scream my plea, but it only came out as a squeak.
She gasped then dropped on all four and examined the horn. “Poor filly, I can sense your hurt. It pains me that your harm I can’t avert.”
I kept looking at her but could hardly see anything through the tears in my eyes.
“I’m sorry, but your whole horn was nixed, such vast damage can’t be fixed.”
I leaned on her neck with both forehooves. “Please!”
“You’re not the first who came to me with a broken horn. The one named Tempest Shadow also came to me with mourn. What I had to say she did not wish to hear. And now again my words will cause a tear.” She sighed, took a big breath and rose her head. After laying a hoof on my shoulder, she gazed through my eyes. “There are things you must accept. This horn on you shall not be kept.”
My mouth gaped. I shook my head so violently that I sprayed her with my tears. It wasn’t the hurt that bothered me. I just wanted my horn back. “You have a potion! You helped Apple Bloom!”
“A tooth is different from a horn. A tooth is not with magic born.” Her eyes glanced at the lower shelf beside me. “Healing potion is a dangerous brew. Mixed with magic, it could break you in two. Only Earth ponies and zebras may drink. Of same, Unicorns should not even think.”
I remembered Apple Bloom mentioning that the potion she’d drunk was my favorite color. There were a dozen translucent flasks on the shelf, but one stood out to me because it was filled with shiny pink liquid. That beautiful muddle was my last hope. I looked up at Zecora. “Could the potion work?” The surrounding world was shaking. Hearing a mere two-letter word of denial from her might break me.
“Some results you could acquire, but the consequences would be dire. It’s just a horn, not worth the risk. I am without one, and I still exist. Learning self-reliance is a must, in yourself migrate your trust”
“Will I still be able to cast magic without my horn?” It was the one thing I used to be at least decent at. I couldn’t just let it go. It made me special!
“Your mind and body can still be in truce. Without your horn, however, stable magic you shall never use.”
Her last sentence sealed it. I didn’t want to let one little mistake define my whole future life. It was time to take charge of my destiny!
I jumped, launching myself across the shelf. When I flew past it, I grabbed the container that harbored the sweet, pink liquid.
Zecora reacted with lightning reflexes and caught me midair with a hoof. She pinned me against the shelf.
With the corner of my eye, I saw the other striped forehoof approaching. It was reaching for the glass bottle in my mouth.
“The flask you now should drop!”
It was then or never. I had to fix it! There was no other way.
“My hut is not a grocery shop!”
I smashed the container against the edge of the shelf. The glass shards cut on my tongue and the inner side of my cheeks, but that wasn’t important. My horn was all that mattered. I lifted my head and swallowed the healing liquid. Blood and glass slipped down my throat along with the potion which had the power to make it all better.
“Do not drink this, it is foul! The potion for your very life will prowl!”
I was promptly dropped to the floor and could barely catch myself on three legs. Just when I regained my balance, she forced me down with one forehoof and struck at the back of my head with the other. Transparent glass pieces fell out of my mouth. Blood sprayed over them painting them red as soon as they hit the floor.
“The horn is too big for your little body to produce, I must attach the old one or too much bone mass you will lose!”
A red puddle under my head touched a hoof. It kept spreading. The blood gushed out of my mouth down to the floor almost in a stream.
“Glass in your mouth you must endure, while the horn I try to secure.” She bowed and picked up the horn with her mouth.
I was lifted over the shattered glass on the floor and laid on my back in the middle of her hut.
She positioned herself on top of me and placed the horn on my stump.
An unbearable force pressed on my head. The enormous pain made me flinch. It felt as if my whole forehead was on fire. The planks of the floor pressed hard through my mane. I feared my brain would get squashed. Her grip was so strong that I couldn’t move. I choked on my blood, yet I couldn't even turn around to spit it out. It hurt more and more. I struggled to lift myself up.
Zecora responded by pushing even more weight on me. My distress was apparent, but she didn’t stop. She was intentionally hurting me and didn’t even care! It was so scary. My bladder acted up, making me pee on her and myself. Hot liquid trickled across my dock and onto the floor.
It had to stop! I pressed against her body with all four legs, but it didn’t help. Even after I kicked her in the torso, she didn’t move off me. I struggled more, but it didn’t help any.
Zecora reacted by pressing her body against me. The striped hooves pushed on both sides of my head, trapping it in place.
I ran out of oxygen, but I couldn’t inhale any fresh air because my mouth was full of blood. I coughed, spraying Zecora’s neck with red.
She didn’t budge. I coughed and scrambled more, but she didn’t let go.
I thought she would end me right there and then. It was at that time that I felt her deadly grip on me releasing.
Zecora’s lips detached from my horn. I thought it would fall off me, but miraculously, it stayed attached even after I shook my head left and right. I didn’t have time to check on it further. My lungs screamed for air and my throat felt as if it was filled with embers. Drinking glass shards didn’t seem like a good idea anymore. I was in agony.
“Death from bone loss may now be averted.” She lifted herself off me and stood on all fours. “But a greater threat in you is still inserted.”
A hoof rolled me to the side. I coughed glass again, creating another puddle of blood on the floor.
“A balm for bleeding I could get.” She pressed a hoof between her eyes. “Ugh, Zecora! Avoiding the truth is not a safe bet? Loss of blood won’t be this filly’s cause of death, for there yet remains an even greater threat.” She whimpered then trotted to the farthest corner of the hut. “I could make use of an ointment for pain, but it won’t prevent the inevitable bane.”
My body radiated hotness as if I was in heat again. But I felt sicker still. It was worse than coming down with a cold and a sore throat at the same time. The pain in my throat was almost unbearable. I didn’t know how to fix it, so I decided to just walk it off. That was surely what Scootaloo would have done in my place. I could have been just as brave as my friend was if I'd put my mind to it!
Still coughing out pieces of glass, I rolled onto my hooves. The sight of the stains on the floor chilled me to my bones. I was no stranger to bleeding, Rarity’s cat Opal had made sure of that, but there was more red on the planks than I was comfortable with. A drop or two had sometimes smeared one of the rugs in the boutique, but the stains had never been as big as the puddle before me. In rough situations like that, it was always easier to just ignore the problem. I looked away to the door of the hut. A shiny mirror hung on the wall beside it. I didn’t want to notice droplets of blood that oozed from the sides of my mouth. Distracting myself was the key!
I swayed to the mirror to check if my horn was as good as new like Apple Bloom’s tooth after having drunk the healing potion. My wishful thinking was so strong at that point, it just had to be true!
Zecora kept throwing around random stuff from a chest on the other side of the hut. “The brew made your body reattach the bone to horn, but now the inner magic your organs will scorn. With no soul’s direction, my whole hut could be blown!” Her voice was breaking ever more. “Unicorn magic I cannot innact. No way for me to counter this ill effect. They’ll surely charge me with foal neglect. When it mattered most I failed to react.”
I stepped to my reflection to see the details of my horn. It was whole again. There was only a narrow crack where it had broken. I smiled at my reflection. “It’s all good.”
Zecora crumpled besides the chest and sighed. “There is no cure for what you drank.” A hoof struck on the floor. “The survival rate is zero, to be frank.” She banged her head on the wall. “How could I let this ordeal come to pass? I should have foreseen it, but I chose to be crass...”
I spread all four legs to catch my balance. Either the world was spinning or my eyes were. I tried focusing on the mirror again. Something sipped from the crack in my horn. It spread and hardened along the bony surface. I felt weakened. The head drifted ever lower as if by its own. My vision tunneled. I gargled as loud as I could to let Zecora know of my bad condition.
She was with me in a flash, glaring at my horn. “This process you suffer... you will not survive. All vitality from your body it will drive. Magic restrictions, no longer benign. A deadly reaction from this shall derive.” Her head bowed so low that her lips almost touched the floor when she whimpered. “Not only you, you doomed me too, either your bursting my life will undo, or a run-away zebra ponies will pursue.”
My body ached all over. The horn seemed to be sucking the very life-force out of me. I couldn’t even think straight anymore. One of my forehooves gave way, and I slammed snout-first on the floor.
“There’s nothing more that I can do, you will die now, it is true.”
I collapsed. Darkness enveloped me. The last thing I heard was the sound of thumping hooves departing away from me. Then, there was silence.
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Comment section minigames for the 09 The Breaking Point chapter of the story Sweetie Belle Gains a Soul (anypony can play them in the comment section of this story).
GAME 1
Does this story remind you of a song that you know? If yes, post it in the comments in the following format:
- Chapter of the story that this song is relevant to.
- A link or embedded Youtube video of it.
- Percentage of correlation (0% being an unrelated song, 100% being a song written exactly for this story).
- A reason why this song reminded you of this story or the excerpt of the lyrics.
GAME 2
Record yourself reading this story aloud. Upload your mp3 to MLP: Audiobooks, for instance, and paste the link to your audio or video in the comments.
Reward: A spot in the author’s note of this chapter.
Edit: The winner is Deity of a Shadow with his Dramatic Youtube reading.
I can't help myself but be fascinated by this bizarro universe. Everything is so weird and wrong at the same time, we got some clue about the why but still, there is many questions.
9311519 What is it that you find weird and wrong?
What questions do you have? I'd like to hear them.
9311525 Good point. I guess there might be heroes in the real world, after all. Yet, all too often, when you look deep enough through someone's goodwill, you see selfish inclinations.
9311550 That would explain the 'Heaven is empty' vision I had.
Miss Sweetie Belle kept on playing and playing with it until it broke off. Let this be a lesson to everypony. I certainly do not play with it.
That conversation took quite a turn.
11126619 Sweetie Belle is still on the subject, but your mind seemed to deviate in a LEWD direction. Are you sure you're not a closet pervert? You see, that would explain why you have sexual thoughts even when you read something completely innocent with no sexual references whatsoever at all.