A Pact to Live

by OblivionShadow

12: Afflictions, No...

Nix focused his magic on the sapphire gem in front of him as he brought his magic forward to see how much magic it would be able to handle before it broke. He had already shattered one of each type of common gemstones that he had at his disposal. His understanding of the notes that he had finally deciphered mentioned the types of gems that he had not tried. The sapphire shook under the sudden strain and he reeled his magic back as a loud knock startled him and the sapphire shattered into pieces.

“Damnit.” He cursed and looked to the ceiling. “Hang on!” He reached out with his senses and it was Twilight with Applejack and an unknown pony.

“Well done. You’re getting good at using your advanced senses.” Kahl praised him.

“Thank you.” He said aloud and got up from his chair and trotted up the stairs. He opened the door to find the two mares looking stressed. “What's up?”

They both looked behind them to a tap-dancing yellow filly that was using her tail to spin a hoop and had a stick with a plate spinning on her snout. He tilted his head at the sight of her and then his blue eyes went to the two mares.

“That’s mah sister Apple bloom.” Applejack explained at his uncertain expression.

“Oh? And why is she doing all that in front of my house?” He asked her

“Have you ever heard of the Cutie Pox?” Twilight asked him.

Phoenix was quiet as he wracked his brain for anything that sounded familiar. “Nothing comes to mind.” He admitted as the filly kept on. “Kahl?”

“I have heard of many maladies and that one does sound vaguely familiar.” The dragon replied. “It afflicted a village many years ago and was not found to have any cure that I am aware of.”

Twilight and Applejack shared a look. “Ya think ya could help us with it? We need ta get rid of it.”

“From what little I am now remembering there was no known reason for the outbreak and no cure. Unless I am remembering wrong.” He replied to her.

“My books say the same thing. I figured asking you for your opinion might help us.” The purple mare admitted to him.

“What can I do?” He asked with a snort.

“You said a project you took from the Princess was for healing,” Twilight said to him.

“I did yeah. But I haven’t looked at it.” He replied to her as he backed up to allow them to come inside. “I haven’t opened the notes on it and its sitting unchecked. I can try to scan it but the notebook from it was pretty thick.”

“Try?” Applejack pleaded with him.

“Okay, hang on. Let me go get it.” He said as the filly came inside. “Try not to break anything.” He said to her and she tried to smile at him as the spinning plate kept moving on her snout. “Kahl?”

“If I recall it had something to do with ingesting or handling a plant…but I do not recall what kind. While I do know of it I do not recall the cause of it directly. Unfortunately, I am of little help in this regard.”

“Your more help than I will be I think,” Nix replied as he unlocked the vault and pulled out the notes from the specific project. He trotted back up the stairs and his magic held the notes aloft for them to see. “Here it is.”

He went to the island in his kitchen and set the notes down in front of him. He opened the pages as the filly tap-danced around them. His eyes scanned the contents as he flipped through the pages. The midnight blue stallion shook his head as he scanned the pages faster and after scanning most of the notebook, he shook his head and looked at the mares.

“I really don’t think this will do anything but…” He opened the next page and looked at it more closely. “Ouch.” He barked as the filly rammed into his leg and he hopped out of her way.

“Sorry.” She panted to him.

Nix went back to the notes and he scanned the paper again before he looked at the mares. “Okay so here he talks about old diseases and maladies that have no known cures. So this is right up our alley. Hang on.” He scanned it again to see if he was understanding it right. “Okay, so this is what I think he means. Please bear in mind that this is an unfinished project that had not been touched in over fifty to a hundred years or more.”

“And?” Applejack said as he tried to explain.

“And it could be worse than the problem.” He replied. “This is old knowledge that hasn’t been touched in recent years. But according to this, it talks about…” He reread it and his nose crinkled in place as he read it again. “Okay, I get it. So it says that the old diseases and sicknesses that still exist can be cured through pure magical force of will.”

“What in the hay does that mean?”

“It means that bringing enough magic to bear against an illness MIGHT be enough to cure it. Basically.” He replied. “Now that might work but it might end up making things worse.”

“So what ya waitin’ for?”

Nix looked at her as the filly tapped around him and he moved out of the way quickly. “Huh? You’re kidding right?”

“Nah. Can ya do it?” Applejack asked him.

“Oh hell no. This talks about taking a huge amount of magic and bringing it to bear on an adult pony. You’re asking me to do an old method on a filly?”

Twilight looked nervously from him to the farm mare. “Can it be made to help?”

“You’re kidding?” He said as he looked at them both. “If I had time to research it maybe I could interpret it into modern medicine. But that will take time. I want to help but asking me to bring magic to bear on a filly is beyond a terrible idea.”

Applejack looked angrily from him to the filly and back again. “We can’t wait too long. Mah sister could be hurt worse by this Pox.”

“I agree. But at the same time, you’re asking me to use antiquated notes on your little sister.” He looked back at the notes and flipped the pages and his eyes widened and he slammed the notes book shut. “Nope. Not an option.”

“Why not?” Apple Bloom yelped.

Nix was quiet as he leaned over the island and the two mares leaned to listen to him. “It killed five before it was tabled.” Both mares’ eyes widened as he spoke. Applejack looked at the filly as she tapped out from behind the stallion. “We need a better option.” He said, his voice final.

Twilight nodded. “He’s right. So raw magic is not the way to go in this case. Any ideas, Nix?”

The stallion was quiet and his eyes flit around the room as the filly tapped around them. “Might be on a good start but magic can make more problems than it can cure. I can try to figure out how it got started by using the basic method he starts out with.” Nix explained.

Applejack nodded and they all looked at the filly who was now tap dancing in the middle of his front room. He approached her and paused several feet from her.

“Be cautious Nix. You are not wrong about the dangers of bringing heavy raw magic against the body and psyche of a filly.”

“Any ideas?” He asked the dragon.

The dragon was quiet and Nix could tell that he was thinking it over. “I would focus on finding out what might have caused the affliction. We would need to know if it was created by an outside force or by something internal.”

“Okay. Apple Bloom?” He said to her and she looked at him as he spoke. “I’m going to cast a spell that will hopefully tell us how you caught the Cutie Pox. If we find out how you caught it then we can try to figure out how to cure it. Okay?”

She looked nervous but a look from her sister had her nodding as the stallion waited. Nix closed his eyes for a moment as he tried to look certain for her as his horn lit with his shared aura, bright blue with sparks of red flame. His aura covered the filly and he focused his magic on the filly. He could hear Twilight and Applejack speaking but he filtered out their voices and went on.

“Ease up.” Kahl advised.

He did as advised and his magic fluctuated slightly as he pulled it back and he kept his eyes focused on the filly, watching her for any sign of pain. She tapped in place and he focused on finding out how she had gotten sick. His magic flowed over her and an image of a flower manifested in his mind and he allowed his magic to ebb and waited as it slowly faded from her and he leaned back on his haunches and breathed slowly.

“Nix?” Twilight’s voice was quiet as he looked back to them.

“Hang on. Let me think.” He said to her and she nodded. “Kahl?”

“It is an outside source that was ingested. She ate something.” Kahl replied quickly. “I do not think it was done to her.”

“Okay. So from what I can tell it was an outside source but was ingested.” He relayed to them.

“What in the…” Applejack said to him.

“She ate something.” He replied quickly.

“It will need to be fixed quickly. This will only get worse quickly.” Kahl added.

“So what did she eat?” He asked the dragon.

“A flower? That is what was shown to us by your magic. It is not possible to know what the flower was exactly.” Kahl admitted.

“So ya ate somethin’?” Applejack asked the filly.

“Any ideas what?” Twilight asked.

“A flower of some kind. I think. It’s not exact but that’s what we were shown.” He replied.

Apple Bloom said nothing as a flash on her flank drew their attention. She looked at them and opened her mouth to speak. "Sacrebleu! Plus de marques de cutie! Qu'est-ce c'est?! Je parle français?!”

“What the?” Twilight said to them.

“French,” Nix replied.

“She’s speakin’ fancy!” Applejack said to them.

“Okay now what?” Nix asked them. “This will get worse faster if we cannot figure out how to get rid of it.”

“What ya mean?”

“Like any illness, it will get worse over time. Normally with being sick you get medicine and it gets better. Without a medicine or a cure wit will only get worse. So we need to get our hooves under us and figure it out.” He replied.

“What about Zecora?” Spike said as he opened the front door and joined them. “She knows about weird things like this.”

“That’s true. She might have a better idea.” Twilight agreed.

“Who?” Nix asked.

“The zebra from Nightmare Night,” Twilight told him and he nodded in reply. “We need to get to her.”

Nix watched as they left his house and sighed as he went to the door and watched them leave. Once they were out of sight he closed the door and his magic picked up the notes on magical healing and he went back downstairs to keep testing the gems he had with him on their capacity to store magic. Happy to return to his own work he settled back down in his basement to test the capacity of a small ruby next.

“Do you think trying to strengthen the biology of the gem itself would be better than just pushing the gem in its natural state?” He asked the dragon.

“We are looking for them to be able to handle the power by themselves so I think we should avoid strengthening them for now.”

“That’s true. Okay as they are it is.” He agreed and went back to testing them on their own.

---

Nix set aside the ruby shards and huffed at the sight of the broken gemstones in front of him. He had been trying to see which raw gem had the ability to withstand the magic he placed within them. The Unicorn leaned back in his chair and sighed as he scrubbed his face with his hooves. His magic held a scroll and quill as he wrote out his own notes.

“Okay, so alone each one cannot hold much magical essence for very long. Without strengthening the biology of the gems they will break due to the pent up energy inherent in the magical essence stored within it.”

The Unicorn grumbled as his magic set the scroll down. He could hear Kahl chuckling in his mind as he looked to the other gems he had at his disposal. The multicolored prismatic gems from Luna sat close to him and his magic picked up one of the smaller ones. His horn lit up and he pushed back Kahl’s magic to allow him to use only his original Unicorn magic to fill the space within the gemstone. The grey Unicorns horn stayed lit with his aura and he pushed magic gently into the gemstone he held. He trusted Kahl to warn him of the limits since he had no way to tell without the gem beginning to either shake or crack

“It’s full.” Kahl voiced and the Unicorn stopped his magic in response.

“Thanks.” He said as set the gemstone down on the table and waited. “Okay, now we wait to see how long before it breaks.”

His blue eyes stayed on the gemstone as the seconds ticked by. He kept a stopwatch close to mark down the timing. Seconds turned into minutes as the gem sat in place and didn’t show any signs of breaking or shaking. He looked at the stop watch and it had been close to five minutes when the gem began to quiver in place. Nix cringed back as it began to shake more and he could hear the sound of it beginning to crack. He stopped the watch and hid under the desk as the gem shattered.

“Why did you hide?” Kahl as ked him.

“It’s bigger than the others and held more magic. I didn’t want to get hit if it exploded.” He admitted.

“I see.”

Nix stood up and his magic moved the shattered gem into place next to the others and he wrote down the timing on his notes. “Okay, so that one lasted the longest. It may have been due to the larger size but I don’t think that matters in this case.”

“I agree.” Kahl assented. “In this case I think it is due to the gems natural strength. I am curious how she got this many of them.”

“Yeah. Still wondering how she got ahold of any of the gems I was given.” Nix spoke quietly as his eyes fell on the case that held the Dragons Tears. “Not going to touch those though.”

“While I am curious of their strength I do not recommend messing with them until we know more of them.” Kahl said to him.

Nix nodded in reply and his magic moved the case further away from him. The fact that those gems were really the hearts of ancient dragons still brought up raw emotions in him. His heart ached for the dragons that had been taken from their resting places. He focused back on the new information that he had and he knew that without strengthening the germs biology they would not be able to withstand the pressure that came from the magic inside them.

“The best gem comes from your lands but I don’t think that they are readily available so using them is almost a waste of time.”

“How do you figure?”

“We can’t get more if they all break.” Nix reasoned to the dragon. “So using them is pointless. Unless they have a way to get more legally I don’t see how using these can help us.”

“Not using them is not an option. You have already signed up for this project and limiting yourself is not doing all that you can. The Dragons Tears are the exception obviously but these others can be gotten if there is an agreement in place. If they are stolen then I agree that using them is not a viable option. But if they are given freely or bought then they are useable. It depends on the circumstances.” Kahl pointed out.

“Fair point.” Nix admitted grudgingly. “So how do I explain that I know where they came from and that we need to speak to a certain groups of dragons to ask about getting more?”

Kahl chuckled in reply. “We don’t.”

“Huh?”

“We simply inform her that we have discovered the best gem to use and it is one of the ones that Luna gave you. We do not admit to knowing where it came from and we do not tell her we know. That way we admit to nothing and leave it in her court about what to do next.” Kahl said to him, his voice calm.

Nix nodded in understanding as the dragon spoke. “Okay, that makes sense. It’s easier to keep the information to ourselves.”

“And we avoid any clues to our current situation becoming known as well.” Kahl said to him.

“That’s true as well. We can’t let slip that I’m not the only one in my head. I shudder to think what would happen then.”

“I am not sure what would happen but I am sure that it would not be pleasant for us.” Kahl added.

“That’s a certainty.” Nix commented. “I don’t; even want to think about if they would try to separate us. Can that even be done?”

“No. Our magic is attuned and our lives are the same breath. It would be akin to separating the sun in half.”

“Not possible at all.” Nix laughed.

“Precisely.”

Nix chuckled as he set the broken gems aside and was about to set them into a trash can when he paused. He moved the shards back into a pile in front of him. His magic brushed them together and they were soon in three neat piles.

“What are you up to?” Kahl asked him, his curiosity obvious.

“Can we make a gemstone?”

Kahl was silent as the pony spoke and after several seconds he finally replied. “I have never made one personally due to fire tending to melt things but you have my attention.”

“What if we use all the shards left to make a new stone? Maybe we can make one strong enough that we can avoid using the stolen stones from the dragons.”

“That is an intriguing idea. Feel free to test it. You will need to bring a large amount of magic to bear and then use it to create the pressure that will fuse the shards.”

“How much pressure?”

“Enough to fuse them. It happens over millennia in the world around us. The world makes them on its own. Very rarely do ponies or other creatures choose to make them artificially. Mostly due to the difficulty that comes from the action of bringing that much magic to bear.” Kahl informed him.

“You think we can do it?”

Kahl was quiet for a moment as he considered the stallion’s question. “We will not know unless we try. Between the two of us, we should be able to at least come close. Shall we?”

“Lets.”

Nix backed up and their fused magic gripped the first pile of shards on their magic. In his mind, he could feel Kahl’s power rising up as well and he embraced it as the fire began to pour from his magic and it encircled the shards as well. He could feel their magic ballooning around the shards and he forced it to compress inward and onto the shards. Nix brought as much magic as he dared from his own reserves and then forced it to condense further onto the shards in his grip. The flames obscured his vision and he was not able to see the ball of gem shards any longer.

“Talk to me Kahl.” He called out.

“Keep going.”

Nix grunted under the force of the magic that was now swirling in front of him. He looked around he could see that fire was spreading around them but it did not burn anything in the room, it was simply there if needed. He could sense its power standing in the wings should it be needed and he could feel the power that came from the dire within the earth itself. His mind focused their magic and he strove to bring more pressure onto the shards, his mind recalling what Kahl had said about the pressure within the earth doing the work of creating the gemstones.

“More Nix.”

Nix poured more magic into the sphere he had made and he began to try to make it smaller still. It was currently close to two feet wide and he began to force it to shrink, increasing the pressure within it. His eyes squinted as the light from the magic became blinding and he was forced to look away. He could feel the pressure on his horn increasing as the magic flowed from him. His hooves gripped the floor as he could feel the ground under him starting to vibrate slightly.

“Pull that magic as tight inward as you can and hold it. I will tell you when to start to pull it back.”

Nix nodded and began to do as he had been told. He commanded his magic to become smaller and make the sphere of magic even smaller. His eyes were still tightly closed so he was not sure how small it ended up being. His magic shuddered through him as he kept trying to make it smaller and keep control at the same time.

“Pull back.”

Nix sighed as he began to release his magic and it slowly returned to him as his eyes opened once more. He watched as the light faded and the fire that had gone around the room came back to him and he fought to stay standing as his body shook. As his magic pulled back He could sense Kahl’s strength go through him to keep him standing upright.

“Well done.” Kahl praised him.

“We did it?”

“We did. Look at your creation.” Kahl advised.

Nix’s aura still held the gemstone and he pulled the magic close to him, allowing him to look at the gem he had made. It was a kaleidoscope of colors and it glittered in the light. The edges were rough and sharp but he knew that could be fixed in time.

“Wow. It’s pretty good sized.”

“About half the size of your hoof.” Kahl estimated to him.

“Not bad for a first try.” Nix replied. “It’s actually kind of pretty.”

“It has its own appeal I agree.” Kahl agreed. “Now you can test it at a later time. Your magic is low and you need to rest to regain your strength. Unless you wish to drain yourself completely.”

“No thank you. I did that once when I was a kid and vowed to never do it again.” Nix replied with a shake of his head.

Nix went back to the table and set the hoof made gem on the table beside the small piles of shards. He regarded the gemstone he had made and then looked to the others that were still sitting in place.

“Hoping they can hold more than the dragon gems?”

“Am I that obvious?”

“We share one mind. It’s safe to safe I know what you were thinking for the most part. But I also know you well enough to know what you were thinking.” Kahl admitted with a chuckle.

“Hmm.” Nix said nothing in reply and picked up the gems and placed them back into the lockbox and locked it behind him. He left the hoof made gem on the table next to the piles of shards.

The grey stallion finished cleaning up his lab and started for the stairs. He paused as his thoughts fell to the Dragons Tears that were inside the lockbox as well. “Hey, Kahl?”

“Yes?”

“Are we to the point where we can try to find out who those Dragons are?”

“Do you wish to start trying to know them?”

“I keep thinking that I would want to be known if it were me. That way we can find out what to do. We can know who to talk to about how they got out of the crypt.”

“Very well. We can start in the coming days. We can also look for a good volcano to ask Mitsu or the others to check on the rest of them. In time we will know what happened to them. Knowing the type of each dragon will allow us to know where they came from.”

Nix nodded and went up to the stairs into the hallway. He locked the basement door and started for the bedroom. He paused and looked over his shoulder to the basement door. He knew what sat in the lockbox down the stairs and a part of his heart ached for the dragons that had been taken. In his mind, he could sense that he was not the only one whose thoughts fell to them.

Author's Note:

Just finished this one and posted it quickly. Let me know if there are any glaring errors and I will try to correct them as I go. As always thank and enjoy!