Diagnosis - V
Both Pinkie and the princess went completely silent, but Pinkie was shaking her head. "What I do's a big, big secret, Twilight, and nopony but my subject can watch me work. That's built into the spell."
"I know." As much as Twilight hated it, this part of the answer was pretty obvious. "Except I've been your subject as well, haven't I? So I should be able to watch just fine."
"But—" Celestia had one front hoof drawn up to her chest, her eyes wide. "Why would you want to do such a thing?"
Pinkie's face showed just as much confusion. Twilight looked back and forth between the two and tried to find the words. "The Panacea spell is all about creating pain and suffering in order to feed the angry maw of the dark magic at the center of the world. But it's not just her subject's pain and suffering: it's Panacea's, too, when she's forced to torture and kill a pony she knows and cares about. It's the combination that gives the spell its power."
Princess Celestia looked like she'd been kicked in the stomach. "That...that's ghastly!"
Twilight forced herself to speak calmly. "Everything about this spell is ghastly. Like I said, that's what gives it its power: the more horror it generates, the better things go for the rest of Equestria."
"That's true," Panacea murmured, her listless mane and blank expression showing that she was once again slipping into control of Pinkie. "And that's why this last time was so strong, isn't it? Not just 'cause you're an alicorn, but also 'cause you're one of my very bestest friends." Panacea's grin stretched over her snout like a tangle of spiderwebs. "'Cause friendship is magic!"
"Then—" Celestia's snow-white hide somehow went pale.
"Yes." Examining her theory, Twilight felt that same thrill she always did when she'd finally cracked an especially thorny problem. "As the Princess of Friendship, if I force myself to watch the pony I love and respect more than any other in the world give herself to the knives of a pony who's one of my dearest friends—" She wanted a quill and parchment to do the calculations, but she still didn't have enough information and it really didn't matter in the long run. "The force we three create should be beyond the scope of anything this spell has ever generated."
The silence that settled over the room this time made Twilight think of a blanket of thistles. And when Princess Celestia said, "Very well," the barbs of those thistles tore every ounce of good feeling from Twilight's heart.
Celestia turned and started toward the table, and it took all Twilight's strength not to leap forward, get in her way, try to stop her. "Panacea?" she asked.
"Yes, Twilight?" came that breathy rumble from beside her.
"I don't suppose you have another set of restraints?" Watching Princess Celestia lay back on that metal surface and seeing the shiver that ran through her mentor when her warmth met that cold, cold steel, Twilight had to sit, her knees turning to jelly inside her. "Because when you start, I...I don't know if I'll be able to just sit here...."
"You have to," Panacea said, but Twilight couldn't look at her, couldn't look away from Celestia stretching her forelegs, her horn sparking to close the clamps around her fetlocks. "'Cause once I start, I don't stop. Not for anything."
"Yes, yes, yes." She'd spent at least two weeks in a futile search for cracks she could exploit in the conditional sections of the spell, so Twilight knew that Panacea was fully empowered to turn her knives against anypony who attempted to interrupt her duties. "I just—"
Two more clanks echoed through the room, Princess Celestia somehow squeezing herself onto Panacea's table and fastening the final straps into place. "Panacea," the princess said, and Twilight almost cried out when Celestia's voice broke. "I...I'm ready."
How the room got colder, Twilight had no idea, but when Panacea swayed up onto her hind legs, the magic that swirled everywhere made Twilight think the air itself had frozen. Then Panacea was touching her wall of knives, they were flashing and flowing to attach themselves to her hoofs, and—
The first stripe of blood welling from Princess Celestia's chest smacked Twilight hard, a molten copper and ozone stink that wrapped around her horn, too, the sheer wrongness of the magical release nearly knocking her over sideways. The sound as well, the swift clip-clip-clip of the blades digging into that pristine flesh—
And then the screaming began.
Twilight refused to remember that, though, pressing her face, crusty and sticky with dried tears, mucus, and sweat, into Celestia's heaving sides, the princess collapsed on Pinkie's bed after the second longest and most horrible hour Twilight had ever spent. Celestia's cuts were already sealing, her body knitting itself together much faster than Twilight's had, and the cyclone of magical energy that had at times threatened to tear out Twilight's mind and soul had settled to a slight rustling at the edges of her senses.
"Five years," a choking voice said, and Twilight pulled away enough to see Pinkie also curled up against Celestia, her face looking as wrecked as Twilight felt. "The power we summoned up, it should feed those grouchy guts who wanna kill all us ponies for five whole years. Maybe even six."
"Yes!" A fierce joy flooded through Twilight. She'd been right! Not about rebuilding the spell: it was such a mess, she was coming to think that might not even be possible. But by matching the spell power for power, friendship against death, she'd altered the balance, changed the playing field at least, and given her time to think of another approach. Dragging herself forward, she sprawled over Celestia's trembling foreleg and aimed her muzzle at the princess's ear. "Celestia! Did you hear? You've given us five years to find a more permanent answer!"
That Celestia's eyes were still clenched shut seemed odd to Twilight. She was breathing, though, and her lips were moving. Stretching, Twilight raised her head and heard, "My fault. My cowardice. Their deaths. All of it, all my fault..."
"What?" Twilight's skin prickled. "No! No, Celestia, you can't think that! You can't!"
"Can't?" Celestia's eyes snapped open, and the red fire that danced in them almost made Twilight leap away. "How can I not?" she shrieked. "All these years, all these centuries, I've sent ponies to their deaths at Panacea's blades when all it would've taken was an hour of agony on my part to save them!" A keening cry escaped her lips, and she slammed her head back into the wall behind Pinkie's bed. "I killed them all!"
"No!" Twilight jumped onto Celestia's chest and dug her front hoofs into the pastel jumble of her mane. "You didn't know! You couldn't have known! You and Luna, your special talents aren't magic, and Starswirl never understood the power of friendship! You three did what you could in terrible circumstances, and it's only right here and right now that we can see all the levels of the spell! That we can maybe figure out a way around it!"
Celestia was still panting, her eyes still closed, but at least she wasn't pounding her head against the wall. "My fault," she whispered again, though. "All my fault."
A different tack, then. "We can't wallow in it," Twilight said, trying to make her voice firm when all she wanted to do was wrap a hug around Celestia's neck and not let go till they both stopped whimpering. "Those who died, they're the real heroes of Equestria, and we need to remember them." She looked back at Pinkie, leaning against the wall and blinking her tear-crusty eyelids at Twilight. "Panacea knows all their names. We can set up a memorial to them now that—" She couldn't help swallowing against the lump rising in her throat. "Now that nopony will ever have to die again to power this spell."
Twilight was sure she heard a creak when Celestia opened her eyes this time, and she put on the gentlest smile that she could manage. A princess protects her ponies, after all, she thought, looking at Celestia's still unstable expression, and out loud she said, "You did what you felt was best at the time."
Her whole body quivering beneath Twilight, Celestia shook her head. "I can never forgive myself," she murmured. "If I'd been brave enough to give myself to Panacea at the beginning, we would've—"
"No." Twilight pressed a hoof softly against Celestia's lips. "We can't change the past: I've proven that at least once. All we can do is learn from our mistakes, vow to do better, and move on." Her throat threatened to close, but she pushed the words out anyway. "Can you do that much, Celestia? For me? Please?"
For an instant, Celestia froze, and Twilight found herself freezing, too. But then Celestia drew in a breath so big, Twilight, still sprawled across her chest, felt like she was riding a rising balloon. "I can try," she said, then she blew the breath out.
"Good enough." With a flex of her wings, Twilight sailed to the floor beside Pinkie's bed. "Now, we have five years. That gives us time to revise this spell, or if we can't, we'll see if we can't find out where this 'deep, dark magic' lives and pay it a little visit." She looked over her shoulder, both Celestia and Pinkie watching her, their manes starting to perk up. "We'll give it a choice: either it changes its ways and ends up friends with us like Discord, or it can keep acting the way it is now and end up like Tirek." She rubbed her face, itchy with dried tears and phlegm. "But first, I vote we get cleaned up a little."
"Ooo!" Pinkie sprang out from behind Celestia and landed on the carpet. "I'll bet Gummy's got the bathtub all full and soapy! He usually does!"
Celestia gave a gurgle that could've been a laugh and more tumbled than climbed out of bed, her legs wobbly but holding her upright, Twilight was glad to see. "Thank you, Pinkie," she said. "That sounds like exactly what we need."
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I was a little surprised by the ending, though it's appropriate for a short, I suppose. Fittingly grueling, implicitly gruesome, and eminently horrifying. I like how Pinkie as we know her has an important role in the story and it's not just a complete divergence from the show.
I think I'm going to have to create a new bookshelf for things that are undeniably very good and yet I never want to think about again.
Exactly why I'm thinking this I don't know, but there was a giant robot strategy RPG for the Playstation called Vanguard Bandits, the main antagonist of which piloted an ancient evil robot awakened by the blood sacrifice of 10,000 people.
It's got a comedy path you can get on NG+, and at the end of the comedy path the ancient evil robot is fighting on your side, piloted by your party machinist. And when the end boss is like "wait, how did you kill 10,000 people?" your mechanic's like "Dude, how long ago was this built again? I overhauled the engine and now all I need to do is prick my finger." (Of course because it's the comedy path he still gets possessed by the ancient evil robot's ancient evil robot soul at the end.)
In related news, what the actual hell, Starswirl? You must have worked super hard at magic to make something so functional you had no clue about.
...wow....i'm rather sad its over...
5546089
Thanks!
I have a special place in my heart for David Lynch's film "Eraserhead." It's the only film I know of that everybody should see once and then never look at again...
5546298
Blood drinking robots:
Are the best kind of robots. My take on Starswirl is that he was really good at the sorts of magic he understood but that he had no idea any other sorts of magic even existed. That's how Twilight was able to complete his spell and get her wings and all: she was looking at it from a perspective that would never have occurred to him.
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Thanks!
I've got to say that I'm glad it's done. I try to make each of my stories here on FimFiction into an experiment, but this one took me some places I'm not sure I'd wanna visit again.
Mike
i necer imagined faving a cupcakes story. Bravo. Hope you win!
I didn't expect it to end like this, but... it's a good, if gruesome, ending for a good, if gruesome, story.
I thought Omelas was involved in the inspiration here. In any case, you took the "Pinkie reveals her true nature to Twilight" twist on this concept and did it far, far better than I did, and in a way closer to the original. Excellent work all around. You actually left me with high hopes for the future; ancient chthonic entities of suffering and equivalent exchange are one things, but Twilight Sparkle is quite another.
Thank you for this.
(As a bonus, when I reached the end of the story, "A True, True Friend" started playing on my iTunes. Morbidly appropriate.)
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Thanks, folks!
I'm kind of gingerly looking forward to seeing the stories inspired by this prompt and the others in the contest--even the "mostly offstage" gore I used here is skirting the line for me, to tell the truth.
Mike
I'm glad I ended up making myself read this, as I ended up liking it. Thank you.
5549873
You're welcome:
I'm starting to warm up to it a little myself, I think...
Mike
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Is the "Slice of Life" tag a pun to boot?
It's certainly the first time I remember seeing that one alongside "Gore".
Weirdly uplifting. Well done!
Upvoted.
Although now I'm thinking: considering that having bystanders witness the torture helps, would we eventually have a situation where every acquaintance of a princess have to watch while she's tortured?
More to the point, how much time would be gained that way?
And with the princesses rotating in this duty, would all this truly be so bad, to prevent the suffering of millions?
(And is it only princesses who can be tortured but not killed? Inquiring minds want to know)
(Yeah, in another life I probably was one of the Discworld necromancers who cut down the liters of virgin blood involved in demon summoning to a couple thimbles of rat's blood)
5551606
Just about the first thought:
I had when I came up with this idea was how "Slice of Life" was the perfect way to describe it.
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I remember distinctly thinking that I should address this point by making a certain amount of secrecy an operating condition for the Panacea spell to work, but it looks like I never actually wrote it into the story. I could slip it in at the top of part five pretty easily--might be I'll sneak in there and do that right now...
Mike
This was pretty cool cupcakes with a twist.
5553815 Nice! I'd say you've fleshed out the idea nicely from that , but that would be gilding the lily.
Also, kudos for this particular knife-twist.
Ouch...
I wrote a review of this story. It can be found here.
Wow,
I have to say, I didn't want to read the story, because its subject nature is not my cup of tea. But you are one of the writers I most enjoy on the site, so I decided to anyway. I'm glad I did, I think you hit upon Twilight's reaction to such a situation nearly perfectly. The story also hit on several themes I wish more fiction explored.
Nothing is black and white, everything is a spectrum of gray.
No easy solutions, and what solutions there are always come with a price.
Solutions that work are not always the best solutions there are.
Progress is a continuous struggle along a path that never ends, and just because you find an answer to a problem doesn't mean you should stop looking at the problem.
In short, another great story.
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Thanks!
This one was definitely a stretch for me--even more than my trio of clopfics!
But now I guess I'll hafta find another genre of story that I don't read and give that a try. Maybe a Western...
Mike
This was great, Mike. Far, far better than the original story, and definitely one of the top contenders for this contest.
Oh man. I loved this one. I'd really love to see a continuation, too. It felt nicely wrapped up for what this short story wanted to do, but it feels like there's excellent potential for continuation. Great stuff.
Amazing use of magical properties, this is beyond amazing, this is divinely dark
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Thanks, folks:
Now that the story's been officially bounced from the contest, I've got some revisions I wanna make here and there--mostly to chapters four and five. Heck, it could even continue, now that I think about it...
Mike
5618321 Well that would be cool to read
It's a real shame that I've read so few of your stories, because if this one is any indicator I'm missing out on a lot. This story absolutely nails the atmosphere - it's easy to sympathize with all of the characters and imagine the pain that Celestia and Twilight felt, despite how little description you provided. I especially loved the use of onomatopoeia, it makes the torture sound/feel so much more horrifying.
I'm really glad to see that it's tagged incomplete, though I'm curious as to what direction it could move towards.
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Thanks!
I seem to have started dividing my stuff between my two pseudonyms. The longer stories end up over here under AugieDog while the short pieces I've been doing based on the prompts from The Writeoff Association all live over at Baal Bunny.
With Panacea, it started off as a short story for the most recent Dangerous Game contest, but after it got bumped, I decided to follow it to its ultimate conclusion once I get done with a non-Pony story I've got to finish before the end of April. And by "ultimate conclusion," I do mean the farthest reaches of time and space...
Mike
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This is a complete story, though! :O You should consider making any extension into a sequel instead.
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My current thinking:
Calls "Diagnosis" here Part One of the whole adventure. The next five chapters, then, would be Part Two, "Prescription," and would follow Pinkie and Twilight letting the other four of Our Heroines in on the whole Panacea thing and six of them resolving to put an end to it once and for all. And the last five chapters would be Part Three, "Cure," as they travel into the spaces-between-space to give the Lovecraftian beings there the "Discord or Tirek" choice.
Mike
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Frikkidy sweet buns :D
Cupcakes, with a plot, and self sacrificing heroism. I am impressed!
Just not looking forward to 5 years from now!
6029513 Exactly, all life is precious and to think that you can sacrifice it is abhorrent.
But to sacrifice your own life to save another is noble, if foolish.
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One of the things:
I hope to address when I can get back to this story is the idea both Twilight and Celestia touch on--just what does it mean to be a princess among ponies?
Mike
6034030 Sounds like something I'll be waiting for with baited breath
"That gives us time to revise this spell, or if we can't, we'll see if we can't find out where this 'deep, dark magic' lives and pay it a little visit." She looked over her shoulder, both Celestia and Pinkie watching her, their manes starting to perk up. "We'll give it a choice: either it changes its ways and ends up friends with us like Discord, or it can keep acting the way it is now and end up like Tirek."
“When life gives you lemons, don’t make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back! Get mad! I don’t want your damn lemons, what the hell am I supposed to do with these? Demand to see life’s manager! Make life rue the day it thought it could give Cave Johnson lemons! Do you know who I am? I’m the man who’s gonna burn your house down! With the lemons! I’m gonna get my engineers to invent a combustible lemon that burns your house down!”
5798451
This is the best spooky thing I've read in I don't even know how long. It would make me happy, in a mildly unnerved way, if there were to be more.
Very good job.
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Thanks!
Other projects keep pulling me away, but I may someday get back to this...
Mike
One hour on twilight gives four weeks of respite; one hour of celestia with twilight watching gives five years; the obvious question is what would one hour on luna with celestia (her sister) and twilight watching give?
You've got some pretty good themes there - what price safety for all, and what if the effect starts wearing off - if an hour of torture on celestia only gives four years the next time, or three, or one?
Great story :)
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Thanks!
I still have my notes for expanding this one, so maybe I'll get to it after the show's run its course.
Mike