The Carmine Line
“Ow!”
“Oh, I’m terribly sorry, darling.”
Twilight twisted around to look at what Rarity was doing. She understood that there were pins involved in fitting a dress, but that had hurt. “Why is this thing so pointy?” she demanded, gesturing to the shards of crystal embroidered along the edges of the dress, which had jabbed her in the side. “I’m not sure dresses are supposed to be sharp.”
Rarity waved her off, a half dozen pins floating in her magic and slipping through the dress as she worked. “I assure you that once the fit is right you won’t even notice. Just have to get everything to lay correctly, my dear, and you’ll be the talk of the evening.”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “It’s a diplomatic meeting, Rarity, not a ball.”
Rarity hmphed. “Well. Still.” She pulled back, examining the alicorn critically, and then sighed. “I suppose that will do, then. You can take it off, now.”
Twilight nodded, and pulled the dress off over her head - or rather, she tried to. A sharp hiss of pain left her mouth and abruptly she teleported two feet to the side instead, twisting to look at her side, where a gash had opened up, trickling blood. “Rarity!” she scolded, before her horn lit, she concentrated, and the wound closed itself as if it had never been. “I swear, if that thing cuts me while I’m in Griffonstone, I’m going without it.”
Rarity turned somewhat red. “I assure you it will not,” she insisted, having the grace to sound embarrassed. “Besides, they’re griffons. They’d probably love a dress that doubled as a weapon.”
Twilight was not impressed. With a hmph, she walked out.
Some hours later, Rarity had finished her adjustments, and was giving the dress a final inspection, just to make sure it was perfect. Somepony with a less critical eye probably would have passed it, too. But Rarity was more thorough than that, and she gave the dress a disappointed frown when she found it. In the gap between two of the crystals, a line of dried blood. It was on the inside of the dress - you certainly wouldn’t be able to see it without getting entirely too close to Twilight, but it was a blemish. A discoloration. An imperfection, that she could not have.
The dress wouldn’t survive the kind of wash needed to get out blood. With a sigh, Rarity looked at the clock. If she stayed up all night, she should have time to make a replacement. And at least this dress had served to get all the measurements correct. She put it back on the rack and turned to her remaining crystal supplies. Time to get back to work.
Rarity woke at noon the next day. It took her a moment to open her eyes, but when she did, the midday sun was quick to snap her into full wakefulness. The dress! She didn’t remember going to sleep, had she even finished it? Dashing downstairs, she opened the door to her boutique, and stopped.
Under her work table, the replacement dress was a mess, torn in two pieces with shards of gemstone flung halfway across the room. But she hardly had eyes for the ruined piece of work, because in the middle of the room was a dress of pure magnificence. It had the same lines as the dress she had been working on, yes, but it was grander, sleeker, more colorful. Somehow it seemed larger than it had been, even though she knew it would still fit Twilight perfectly. “How…?” she murmured, stepping up to it reverently. Her hoof reached out to touch it…
“Ah!” she pulled back as a crackle of electricity shot out from the dress, making the room smell of magic. Not her magic, though - she would know that purple color anywhere. Hesitantly, she approached again, and this time the dress did not shock her. She turned the hem of the dress up, somehow knowing what she would find.
The stain of blood was gone.
At first, Rarity pretended the incident was a happy accident. Twilight was ecstatic about the ‘improvements’ to the dress, it didn’t stab her anymore, and by the time her trip to Griffonstone was over, she had forgotten about the fitting incident entirely.
But Rarity couldn’t forget. She’d tried to recreate the phenomenon with her own blood, but all she had managed to do was ruin a perfectly good design. Her blood wasn’t enough. She couldn’t remember if Twilight had ever bled in her presence before - was it just because she was such a skilled spellcaster, or was it because of her ascension? Rarity didn’t know, but it didn’t much matter. She needed to see if it could happen again.
It was weeks before she got another chance. A monster from Tartarus got loose - something to do with Cozy Glow and a new pen pal at school. Rarity was fuzzy on the details. But during the fight that had arisen, Rarity saw it cut Twilight. Not enough to seriously hamper her, but enough for a sample, for an observant unicorn to collect later that night.
A dab went on a new dress design. Another dab on her spare sewing machine. A few more on choice pieces that she wanted to use in future dresses. And then, despite being too excited to think sleep was possible, she retreated to bed.
She awoke surprised to realize she had fallen asleep at all. Approximately two seconds later, she was downstairs again. “Oh… my,” she breathed.
It had worked. Everything had worked. The dress was resplendent, the sewing machine sleek and twice as powerful as before. Each individual piece of jewelry and fabric was gorgeous and beautiful and perfect. With a soft laugh, she realized she had opened up a gold mine. All she had to do was make one of her best friends bleed.
There was a moment of doubt. Surely that wasn’t worth it. But then, her eyes fell on one of her sewing needles. It had been the one in the sewing machine when she had left it for the night. Carefully, she picked it up in her magic, admiring its tiny, perfect point.
She had to have more.
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I really enjoyed this!
"or was it because or her ascension?"
Feel like you meant of.
Regardless, good work!
Erm
And then Rarara went to Twiggles' house and said "Daaaaaaaaaaahling, I have an experiment for you to run. It involves alicorn blood"
And then they both did it with mutual consent and no one went insane.
The end.
that slow decent into creeping horror.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2019/3/17/1987842.png
glad that its cannon after that reality warping book incident.
would have loved to see how far she'd have gone to get that sample during that fight.
This also reminds me of the story where Twilight breaks her last quill and "borrows" one from Owlowlicious and then makes a wonderful discovery about his feathers...
I wonder if Twilight knows her blood can do this, or if any if the other Mane 6 do... maybe AJ is watering the orchard with alicorn blood....
Well this was fun to delve In to
Hey rarity, try not to bleed her dry.
The sad part here is, if she told Twilight about this, she would probably be eager to experiment with her own blood...
9859283
"LOOK RARITY I COATED MY PALACE IN BLOOD! Why do I feel woozy?"
Interesting.
Rarity assembles the most glorious herd of handsome, educated stallions (and a few mares in case Twilight swings that way too) and parades them all before Twilight, hoping she, in true anime fashion, pops an explosive nosebleed.
Ooo, very nice! Will you be adding more, do you think?
9860059
Given how many people have asked for more, probably. No promises, though.
9859368
That's actually a good reason NOT to tell her. XD
"Excellent! Ve must haff more!"
I'm in full agreement that, aside from a possible initial bit of revulsion and horror, Twilight would probably be at least curious enough to run some willing experiments, like people in the comments say she would. Hell, she'd probably be all too willing to bleed for her friends if she found it could help them in some way.
Fascinating concept
This reminded me of:
[Adult story embed hidden]
Rarity is slightly demented in your story, but here she's full-on crazy. The results seem similar.
A nice and compact story, and somewhat scary - Rarity in this frame of mind doesn't sound like she'll take no for an answer.
9859283
And then Twilight decides to expand the experiments to the other alicorns. And then Discord.
And that's how Equestria invented the shoggoth!
9858217
post this on Never the Final Word
9860795
As the writer of Displaced Into Nothing, I like this idea: I always approve of shoggoth.
Voldemort takes a sudden interest in alicorns…
Also Rarity proves why she is the WORST fit for the Element of Generosity, which should have gone to Derpy!
….
Come to think of it, Derpy should have ALL THE ELEMENTS and become Princess Derpina I.
i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/660/653/e42.gif
Flurry Heart is nice and small and trusting... and blood of an innocent foal is probabaly WAYYY more powerful!
Go murder her, Rarity.
Subtlety in horror is an art in itself, and I think you captured it very well in so little words.
Nicely done!
Make a sequel pleeeeeeease....I NeEEEeeeEd IT
9861369
I think this story doesn’t really need a sequel. The follow-up will be far more terrifying if it remains inside of your head.
The almost twist into a Dark/Horror tag at the very end really puts this over the top. Bravo! Great stuff here!
Though the thought of a sequel focusing on how far Rarity might go here, I almost want to see it focus instead on how Twilight reacts to the discovery that her blood has almost godly powers. Can it heal AND enhance? If so, what is that worth to her? And did Celestia/Luna know this and never tell her? And in a time of crisis, is her blood worth more than friendship itself?
Yeah, good timing for something kind of spooky, disturbing dark. But at the same time, not seeing why or how Rarity would go off the deep end like this. As has been said, All Rarity would need to do is mention it to Twilight and Twiggles would be more then happy to experiment a bit, especially if she knows some blood restoration spells and given how little seems needed for anything.
I want more
The logical continuation of the story feels more like a horror comedy, where the Rarity and Twi obsess about the magical properties of alicorn blood and go waaay overboard.
If alicorn blood is that powerful, that would imply that alicorns are quite immortal too in your story, and maybe she can make all her friends immortal too...
9861081
More people need to like your comment
9858812
Omg I know that story I was sobbing the entire time!
Yeah. This WOULD be creepy out of context. But this is Twilight we're talking about.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2015/12/31/1056906.png
There is no brakеs on the science/Friendship/'teach a lesson, make a problem' train.
9858812
Do you remember the story's title, by chance?
9862583
It's Ink, by Perigrine Caged
Maybe she could ask nice, in name of science and all that.
feels like more a dark comedy then dark
9862629
Why do people seem to insist on linking to the chapter itself rather then to the title page for stories?
Also, that was creepy, but good.
An exceptional story. I fear what might be coming.
9861834 I was thinking along the same lines.
"... and so after my results had been verified, Doctor, I knew I had to have more of the blood."
"Uh-huh." Doctor Stable looked at his patient, lying in bed in a semi-conscious state, moaning occasionally as the intravenous drip replaced the fluids missing from her body. (Nurse Redheart had had some difficulty finding a blood vessel not already nicked by the dozens of scars on Princess Twilight Sparkle's forelegs. "And so you decided to help yourself, did you?"
"I beg your- oh! Oh, no no no!" Rarity said. "Twilight put all those there!"
Doctor Stable gave Rarity a disbelieving glance. "Is that so?" he asked. "What for?"
"Well, a couple little nicks and scratches are one thing," Rarity said, "but I wasn't going to steal my dear friend's blood. That would be horrible! So i asked permission." The white unicorn's face turned a little pink as she continued, "I admit she was just a scoche upset at first. But when I explained the effect it had, and showed her the results, she got this look in her eyes. You know, type 3 Twilighting."
Doctor Stable nodded understanding. In the years Twilight Sparkle had lived in Ponyville, the verb "to Twilight" had not merely been coined, but given multiple meanings. Type 1: freaking out over unjustified things. Type 2: overreaction to fear of failure. Type 3: manic-obsessive conduct related to science. "Continue."
"Well, that's just it. We DID continue," Rarity said. "And Twilight just. Would. Not. Stop! Does the effect work with old blood? Is it stronger with fresh blood? Does chilling or freezing the blood change the effect? Does it work on drawings? On furniture? On stained-glass windows? Can it be made into ink? Into paint? Into dessert toppings?" Rarity stroked her friend's hoof with her own and added. "Just before she passed out from blood loss Spike and I had to wrestle a bone saw away from her. She wanted to know if alicorn meat had the same effect on cooking."
Twilight squirmed in the hospital bed and murmured, "I'm so delicious..."
"I see," Doctor Stable said. "And Spike backs you up on this story?"
"I'm not telling you this from the inside of a castle cell, am I?" Rarity asked. "Of course he backs me up! And so does Fluttershy. She was with us when we tried to talk her down!" She hung her head and murmured, "I wish I'd been more careful with my pins."
"I wouldn't worry," Doctor Stable said quietly. "This isn't the first Twilighting episode we've dealt with, after all. I'm sure that, in a week from now, the obsession will pass and she'll be good as new, without any autocannibalistic fantasies."
"I do hope you're right," Rarity said. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to send a letter to Princess Cadence." She paused. "No, first a letter to Crystaller Sunburst. I need to know how much rubber and cork it'll take to cover every pointy and edged object in the Crystal Empire."
Doctor Stable cocked his head in confusion. "Beg your pardon?"
"Well, think of it," Rarity said. "Twilight's blood makes everything more dazzling, yes? And everypony who sees the effect wants it. So what happens when Flurry Heart gets a boo-boo?"
The doctor found a lump choking his throat. "Celestia preserve us all," he gasped.
Remember the time when Tirek gave her a knuckle sandwich, TROUGH A MOUNTAIN? ...
So she went to ask Twilight, which gave her a needle full, since Twilight is VERY interested in magic n such and they are friends and a bit blood wont kill anypony :)
Dark Tag banished :D
9863245 Tirek's fists and magic = blunt objects.
Mountain = blunt object.
No pokeys.
9863261
Note to future villans
Twilight sparkle princess of magic ((╹◡╹)凸)
Smashing attacks are not effective
Stabbing attacks are super effective
9863153
If Alicorn blood is so magical, wouldn't she have a super rare magical blood type you'd need to match for her blood transfusions? Did they have Cadance donate some?
9863261
He went head first... horns are pokey :I
Also edgy rocks are pockey...
And when the library blew up, she EASILY could have got paper cuts!!!!
9863294 The IV is saline, not plasma.
Either Rarity’s, excuse me, completely retarded and tries to kill twilight, or she cleanly explains the phenomenon to Twi and they work on it together.
I think we all know what kind of choice Rarity, the mare who opened the Inspiration Manifestation book, the mare who let Twilight Sparkle make a dress, the mare who whines constantly, would do.
9863399
If she has some kind of super healing factor, then saline would be the perfect solution (bad pun?).
When I have read your comment I have imagined that Twilight drained herself dry, because she could as an alicorn.
9863285
Maybe the pins only "worked" because they were not an enemy attack.