Painful Reprieve

by Shinigamimirror

A New Friend

A New Friend

“OOOoooOOOh! Did somepony say popcorn!?” A high-pitched chipper voice chirped out.

“Oh no…” The yellow mare muttered under her breath as she saw the look of utter madness on her purple friend. Fluttershy looked over to the corner of the library to see a disturbingly pink poofy maned head poking out from a flowerpot. There was soil on top of her head with the flower perched at the top and it wiggled with each twitchy movement from the bubbly mare in the pot. With one large inhale, the pink one began her onslaught of giddy excitement. It was at this moment Fluttershy braced herself. Twilight was unresponsive, staring blankly at the wall, oblivious to the verbal assault.

“Are you guys getting ready for a movie night tonight? I got a twitchy twitchen tail and a wiggly ear and that usually means there is somepony new in town but I couldn’t go anywhere ‘cause I was watching the twins but I’m free now and I started looking around town for the new pony but couldn’t find them but then when I walked past the library my knees got all wobbly and I came in and I found you guys all dressed up and it looks like you’re getting ready for something but Twilight doesn’t look too good and it looks like you need a good Pinkie party and then Spike said popcorn!” Pinkie spouted out in one breath. Pinkie had to take another long breath to continue.

It was at this time Spike sighed and turned to leave. “I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me.” He said over his shoulder. His scaly claws could be heard receding into the kitchen as he returned to his kitchen duties.

Pinkie continued her assault with another utterance of words. “Ooh! Ooh Ooh! Are we going to watch the new ‘Hoof Wars’ movie?” Her head bobbed up and down and her candy cotton mane swayed with each bob. “I heard Boba Fetlock is making a return! I think it would be so great to have a ‘Welcome to Ponyville movie night’ party.”

“Pinkie” Fluttershy said gingerly.

“Is that new friend here?”

“Um...Pinkie”

"Is that why you’re having a movie night!?”

“Pinkie please-”

Pinkie took in another deep breath as her face lit up with pure glee. “You guys wanted to help me plan a movie party for the new pony in town! ” Pinkie brought her hooves to her face in mock astonishment. “But first we need to fix Twilight.”

“PINKIE!” Fluttershy shouted, nearly knocking Twilight over.

“Oh, hi Fluttershy!” Pinkie waved cheerily from her pot. In that moment Pinkie crossed her eyes and went serious as she looked over Twilight’s state of affairs..

“Oh No!” Pinkie bellowed as she leapt out of the pot and tackled Fluttershy to the ground, the flower still rooted to her noggin.

“Fluttershy, something is wrong with Twilight.” Pinkie faux whispered in the yellow one’s ear. “I’ve seen that look before. That’s how she looked during the smarty pants incident.” The pink one sucked in another deep breath of air and whirled around to face Twilight and waved a foreleg in front of the glazed purple eyes. “Twilight, are you okay? You don’t look so good.” Pinkie grabbed Twilight in a tight hug and discovered that the book horse was as pliable as a flaccid noodle. The purple body slumped against Pinkie.

The buttered one took a breath to compose herself and cleared her throat to get her friend’s attention.

“Umm… she’s not having a good day, and then we had a talk with Discord that didn’t go so well.”

“Discord!? What did he do?” Pinkie reeled back around to face Fluttershy, her brows furrowed in anger. Pinkie let go of the purple noodle, only to have it slump to the floor.

“Discord didn’t do anything. That is the problem. Twilight was blaming him for something, and he defended himself… in that Discord way. It’s not his fault.” Fluttershy turned her gaze to the purple lump on the floor and winced.

Pinkie’s mane deflated slightly again. “Whatever it is, we need to snap her out of it before we have another crisis and I know just what to do!” Before Fluttershy could protest pinkie had disappeared and reappeared in the blink of an eye. She had a book in one hoof and a pitcher of water in the other. “I hope I don’t accidentally get water on this dry book!” She spoke in faux distress. She placed the book on the ground and began to tip the pitcher of water to drip some water onto the open book.

Twilight immediately sprang into action. “Pinkie! Water damage is a five-bit fine from the library!” She seethed as she took the book away in her magic. She brought it to her and hugged it like an overprotective parent and glared at Pinkie. “I wish you would have more care with literary content. You and Rainbow Dash have no respect for the written word!”

“Umm… Twilight.” Fluttershy began. “Are you alright?”

Twilight shook her head, with the odd sound of clinking marbles filling the room.

“No!” Twilight huffed out. “I’m not. I blamed Discord for something he didn’t do, and I can’t figure out a magical problem! I’m not okay.” Twilight slumped. “Discord had a point...and it’s the worst!” Twilight punctuated her despair by cradling her head in her hooves.

The pink one reeled on Twilight and took her in another crushing hug. “I know just what you need!” Pinkie brought her face close to Twilight’s, her blue eyes seeming to look through her. “My Pinkie sense told me there is some pony new in town and you can help me throw a party!”

The purple one sighed, because she knew exactly where this was going. “Pinkie, we can’t have a party for a creature that is in a medically induced coma.” Twilight internally winced at how blunt she needed to be with her friend, but that was the only way to stop the Pinkie train from derailing, smashing through the train station, and then flying away into the sunset.

Pinkie’s mane deflated some more with the sound of air being let out of a balloon. “Twilight, that’s horrible!” Pinkie’s eyes glazed over as the implications sunk in.

“You mean to tell me you found a creature by the everfree that we’ve never seen before that was so burned that you had to bring it back to town for medical attention but the hospital couldn’t care for it so you had to turn your basement into a makeshift infirmary and then he woke up only for him to grow a horn that was so painful that you had to give him sedatives and you’ve been spending the day trying to find out why?”

Fluttershy and Twilight just stared at each other in disbelief. They knew from experience not to question Pinkie when she was being Pinkie, but it still didn’t detract from the downright spookiness of how scarily accurate and specific she was.

Pinkie continued, her mane reinflating slightly as her face filled with resolve. “Don’t worry Twilight, Pinkie is on the case.” Pinkie bobbed her head in determination, soil from her mane falling to the ground. Without ceremony Pinkie pronked towards Twilight’s basement.

Twilight and Flutterhsy did not have time to process what had just happened before Pinkie was already halfway down the basement stairs.

“Pinkie wait!” They shouted in unison before scrambling to their hooves to catch up.

**

---

**

Bon-Bon watched as Twilight and Fluttershy disappeared in a flash, leaving the makeshift hospital room quiet save for the beeps and boops from the medical equipment hooked up to the human.

Lyra had gotten over her initial excitement and was helping Triage with some medical charts. The harp flanked minty mare was consulting with the medical student about the human’s vitals and what they should be. At the moment they were discussing normal blood pressure and body temperature.

Bon-Bon was sitting on her haunches watching the human’s chest rise and fall with each breath. She had tuned out the conversation going on and was thinking about her troubles at home. The candymaker frowned in contemplation. Lyra’s ribs were beginning to show because she didn’t eat. Her fillyfriend was losing weight and there were bags under her eyes. Bon-Bon sighed thinking about the pure joy Lyra had for the human before her. It was that twinkle in her eyes that she loved the most, but she had not seen it in so long.

‘How come I can’t make Lyra that happy?’ She thought. She sulked inwardly. Was she not the good filly-friend she thought she was? She looked at the protruding horn on the human. Would Lyra be that happy if she were to suddenly start growing hands?

Bon-Bon shook her head at the ridiculousness of it all. It was the stupid rumors that had Lyra in her study not eating and not sleeping. Lyra loved her for who she was, hooves and all, right?

Over by the monitoring equipment Lyra was in her element. Triage was impressed at Lyra’s medical knowledge, if not dubious. From Lyra’s research Triage was able to form a baseline for the human’s vitals and start medical records for his species. They had gone over his body systems and x-rays and confirmed that there was nothing physically wrong with him other than the burns...and the horn.

When the conversation moved towards the magic, however, Lyra grew dour. “Humans don’t have magic...at all.” Lyra crossed her forehooves. “The world he comes from doesn’t have any magic. He shouldn’t be able to store magic… and now he has a horn.”

The medical mare looked at a magical x-ray she took and brought it up so they could look at it. It showed magic as glowing sparkles and leylines were highlighted in blue. From what the x-ray showed, there was a growing reservoir of magic right underneath the newly grown horn, and magical tendrils were slowly snaking throughout his body. The leylines stretched across his head and were creeping through his neck.

“Do you think this is an adverse reaction to magic exposure? If what you say about humans is true and they don’t have magic where they come from, there is no telling how his body will react to thaumaturgical exposure.” Triage, brought her hoof to her chin in thought.

Lyra looked at the x-ray, and then the DNA results. “Magical exposure would explain the leylines, but not the DNA. If this was just magical exposure, his body would just absorb the ambient magic. I’m no magical prodigy, but not even ambient magic can alter DNA.” Lyra looked at Triage with hesitation. “I noticed he still has burns on his body. Have you tried using healing magic?”

Triage frowned. “Yes, when they brought him in they tried using healing spells on him but they had no effect. Why?”

“What if your healing spells were just absorbed. If his body is building leylines this fast it’s most likely his body just absorbed the magic.” Lyra postulated.

Triage cocked an eyebrow. “Are you saying casting magic on or around him will expedite whatever metamorphosis he’s going through?”

“It’s entirely possible. If we want to slow this down we have to set up anti-magical barriers. There is no way to remove ambient magic, but at least we can prevent anypony from casting spells on or around him. We will have to wait until Twilight gets back. She’s the magical expert.

Bon-Bon, Triage, and Lyra all looked to the door as they heard the tell-tale sound of Pinkie pronking, followed by the sound of a door being thrown open. Streamers, confetti, and a few balloons flew into the room with a ‘fart’ sound.

“Hiya everypony! I heard someone needed cheering up and I want to get the room ready for when he wakes up.” Pinkie was bouncing in unimpeded and stopped by the foot of the human’s bed. “OOOooOOh, he’s so….bald!”

“Absolutely not.” Triage scolded, as she blew confetti out of her mane. You will not be getting confetti into this expensive medical equipment. This is a hospital, not a party room. Ms. Pie if you cannot control yourself I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” She said sternly.

“Awww, okay. No confetti. Can I still do balloons?”

Triage sighed and shook her head. “Yes, you can do balloons.”

Comments

[tsaukpaetra]

Oh dear, Pinkie you're gonna get yourself kicked out!
They'll not likely be able to halt or reverse the transformation. The question is, will they give him the option of being awake through it or just be shell-shocked upon awakening once it's done?

[Munro]

the pink menece "his" xD

[DovahkiinMaster]

This will be very interesting, very interesting indeed. I wonder if it will end up being dark magic, or if another reasonable cause will be presented. I'm giddy thinking about the possibilities!

[Amos Anon]

The buttered one took a breath to compose herself and cleared her throat to get her friend’s attention.

The buttered one, lol.

[Amos Anon]

Pinkie let go of the purple noodle, only to have it slump to the floor.

Imagine reading this out of context, lol.